The STARt of Something New
by avs94
Summary: In the world of RWBY, when another major team hits the stage, Team STAR, what is to be expected? Can these new four individuals change life dramatically for all the others? It all depends on the choices they make.
1. Welcome to Beacon

**This is the initial beginning to my story which is about a new team of 4, who are alongside the other teams of Beacon. As well with THAT being said, I do not own RWBY, original concept by, and credit to, Monty Oum. This will involve 4 of my own characters and some minor alterations to the actual story of RWBY. An example would be that my character stumbles upon Ruby after her encouter with Weiss, instead of Jaune. Mainly meant to be adventure-esque, but I might broaden my genre horizon as it goes on. P.S. Sorry in advance for the lengthy details, but I find that stories are more interesting if you can see yourself in the scene and what the characters look like. And, of course, that takes a lot of writing on my part, and lots of reading on your part. God, I hope I don't have to write so many notes next time... Sheesh! P.S.S. This series is rated T for suggestive language, more than likely eventual romance,**** and suggestive themes. Reader discretion advised. And please, give it a chance. Just cause you don't like the beginning, doesn't mean you won't like the rest!**

"Woooooooooow..." Looking out at the Beacon Academy was certainly a sight to behold from the airship. Ryan couldn't believe the view. He could see out for miles on end from way up in the clouds. "You can see Signal from up here!" a girl's voice chimed in from somewhere. Ryan began looking around, outside his window, and spotted it out in the distance. "Wow, you really can..." he murmered quietly to himself. _That's where I SHOULD be at the current moment but..._

**Flashback**

"Come on Mom! They're starting the registry for Signal today and I don't wanna be late!" 13 year old Ryan chimed. "Slow down honey," his mother called after him, "we've got plenty of time to get there." Ryan slowed his running pace and waited for his mother to catch up to him. When they were side by side his mother ruffled up his hair. "There, isn't that better? To be together rather than apart?" his mother inquired. "Haha, yep!" Ryan replied.

_Several minutes later..._

"And here we are!" Ryan exclaimed dramatically, his arms outstretched to the Signal Academy. "All right then, let's get inside," his mother said, and they both marched towards the door, side by side. But, as soon as they opened up the front door, Ryan's mother was greeted by a red sword, swiftly pressed to her throat and a rough grip from a hand around her arm. The man dressed entirely in a black suit, hat and glasses quietly whispered into her ear, "Just follow me, and don't try anything stupid." Ryan's mother gulped at this, while Ryan could only idlessly fret, unsure, and unable to do anything. "You too kid, come with me," he said as he jerked Ryan's mother into the building. Ryan's eyes went wide from fright as he saw what had unfolded inside the building.

Everyone inside was on the ground, applicants, instructors, bystanders, everyone. Except for himself, his mother, the man in black, and a man standing in the middle of the room, with a white trench coat, black pants and shoes, orange hair, and a bowler hat with a red band around it. He had a cigar in his left hand, and a short black cane in his right. He was talking to another man dressed enitrely in black. "What do you mean they haven't shown up yet?" his voice was dripping anger and beratement. "We're terribly sorry sir, but- Wait, wait, there they are!" The man in black was pointing towards Ryan and his mother. He was frightened and turned to his mother, who didn't give an inch in her focused look. So, he did his best to follow suit. It was a little easier considering he didn't have a sword shoved to his throat, but still... he felt like he had to do something. It was only a matter of figuring out what.

When the man began walking towards Ryan and his mother he very quickly began to crack, and tried to make a break for the exit, only to have a gunshot ring by his ear. "That's right, kid, you aren't going anywhere. Especially not since you're worth so much," the man in the white coat snarled. "And just to be sure..." the man nodded to the man in black, who sliced his sword across Ryan's mother's neck, slitting it. She went bug-eyed and grabbed at her throat, but it was futile. Ryan had watched the whole scene, beginning to finish, as his heart plummeted to an all time low of sorrow and sadness. The man in black dropped Ryan's mother to the floor, and Ryan watched as she began to bleed out. The man in white laughed, "So, kid. What are you gonna do NOW?" Ryan just looked at the man in the eyes, his mind plagued by hatred and sorrow. His anger grew, and grew, and grew, until he screamed out in fury, a huge crack of thunder in the sky, and lightening engulfing his body. Still blinded by rage, he charged, full speed at the man, and then everything went white for a few seconds, than black.

Ryan later awoke a long time later, realizing that the building was demolished, and the men in white and black gone. He had also noticed that all the other people that were around had gotten up, quickly discussing what had happened, all of them eyeing Ryan with suspicion. Throughout all that time being unconscious, Ryan had completely forgotten everything that had happened between his mother's throat being slit, and waking up as of now. His mother... Ryan quickly began searching for his mother when he realized that she was face first on the floor, a puddle of blood spreading from her lifeless body. He ran quickly to her body, and turned her over, only to see a lifeless face, her blue eyes bug-eyed permanently from shock. Ryan hit his second all-time low, as sadness overcame him and he began crying, sorrowfully.

"She was proud of you, you know." Ryan looked up with a start. He saw a man, his white hair messed and blood spattered, his dark green jacket and pants torn apart. He was standing with what looked to be a cane, but based on the design close to the handle, Ryan asssumed it was something more. Ryan sniffed, "What for? My stupidity was the cause of her death..." The man kneeled down next to him, and put his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Do you want to know what her last words were?" Ryan snapped her tear filled face to look at the man. "She said that you were something special, something she could've never expected, or be happier for. A brave son, with a very special gift. A gift that I can help you work with." Ryan stared blankly into the man's face. His expression was unwavering. Ryan stared back down at his mother, the tears finally coming to a stop. Ryan sniffed. "Will you help me? Will you help me to develop this..." he paused searching for the right answer. "Gift?" the man answered. "That caused my mother, my ownly remaining family, her life?" The man nodded his head. "I will do my best to help you in your endeavor. Not just for your own sake," he paused, and turned to Ryan's mother, "but for hers as well." With that, they man closed her eyelids. Ryan stepped back from the corpse. Without that large gash across her throat, she looked peaceful. At rest. Ryan looked up at the man, and extended his hand. "I'm Ryan. Ryan Kick. Applicant to Signal Academy." The man smiled and accepted Ryan's handshake. "Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Acadamy." Ryan's jaw dropped. "Your... the Headmaster at Beacon?" Ozpin nodded. "I suppose I should... probably train here at Signal for a few years before I decide to go up there," Ryan paused, "Will I still be able to have help developing this... 'gift'?" Ozpin smiled. "The best you can get."

**End Flashback**

Since then, 3 years passed, and Ryan had indeed developed his gift, though he didn't see it as that. He saw it as a curse, a price had been paid to discover it in the first place, after all. Ryan had grown quite a bit, his height topping out at 5' 8". Ryan had Light brown hair that sweeped left across his forehead in a flow, all one direction. He had dark hazel eyes, and wore a pair of black rimmed glasses. He wore a dark purple zip-up hoodie, that he usually left unzipped, and had a lighter shade of purple t-shirt on underneath. The sleeve on Ryan's right arm was ripped off, but the one on his right was still intact. Ryan had baggy indigo colored jeans, and wore red and black sneakers on his feet.

He had his weapon slung over his back, resting in its brace. It was a rather large sword, double bladed, that spanned roughly 3/4 ryan's height. The sword was a multi-action dust, high calibur, sniper sword. Meaning that large and powerful bullets could be fired out of it, and it had integrated dust technology, allowing him to swing his sword swiftly from the recoil of the shots, and have the power of the elements to call upon in any situation. Ryan had red (fire), yellow (light), blue (water), brown (earth), white, (wind), ice blue (ice), and purple (lightning) integrated into his sword. The trigger for the gun was right beside the handle, ready to be used in his dominant right hand, since the bullets fired out where his hand wasn't resting. He can reload the chamber by detaching the bottom orb, and replacing it with a different, filled canister.

After Ryan shaking the afterthoughts of his past he quickly reminisced on how much he had grown since then. He heard a blaring beep, snapping him from his thoughts, indicating that the ship had landed safely and students were free to depart the craft. lone blonde guy in particular, holding his mouth and stomach, running like a bat outta hell, towards the exit. Ryan silently chuckled to himself. "Guess the view's not for everyone. Fair enough," as he also lined up to head his way out of the airship.

As he exited the airship and took a few steps away from the general wave of people he looked out at Beacon Academy and its school grounds. He was amazed at how large the main building of Beacon was, the grandiose of it was incredible. Ryan was still idly standing by, his eyes taking in all his surroundings when suddenly he was rammed into, hard, and fell face first into the ground. "Owwwwwchh!" Ryan cried out in pain as his face had an express meeting with the concrete. "Oh god, I'm so terribly sorry! Are you all right?" a voice cried out in concern. Ryan grunted out in pain. He then felt his face, checking for any blood. Forutnately, he didn't feel anything dripping down his face. So, he turned to face the culprit of his pain when he caught his own words in his mouth. "Do you have any idea how-" he began loudly however, his jaw hit the ground when he saw the person who had knocked him over. He stared up at a girl, her soft face and dark green eyes riddled with worry. She flinched a little when he started, ready to take the brunt of his anger, but was surprised when he cut himself short. "Uh, hey?" she knelt down on one knee and waived her hand in front of his face. "Anybody home?" she inquired. Ryan shook his head clear before he had clicked in on the fact that he was being talked to. "Uh, yeah, I'm here. I'm fine." "Are you sure about that?" she asked with ausement before extending out her hand. Ryan grasped her hand firmly and she hoisted him up. "Yeah, yeah... I'm sure. Oww..." he muttered in response.

Ryan took his time to carefully look over the girl. The girl was roughly 3 inches shorter than he was. She had dark black hair that flowed down her back and stopped midway. Her green eyes and soft face were sporting a smile, almost on the verge of a laugh, if anything. She had a light green jacket on that had cut its sleeves short at her elbows, but it spanned the length from her shoulders to her knees, slowly flaring itself outward from her hips, and ending at about knee height. The jacket itself was unbuttoned at the front, and showed that she was wearing a black t-shirt, with black shorts. She had black leggings that spanned the rest of the way from the hem of her shorts to her boots, which were black cargo boots. Ryan glanced towards her left arm and saw three thick, black bands wrapped around the length from her elbow to her wrist. He had also noticed the shoulder pads she had on, bright green in color. They spanned her entire shoulder and all the material came to a single point, protruding outward.

"Haha, you sound a bit roughed up," she punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Did I hit a soft spot, or do you always have your guard lowered?" "Excuse me, but remind me how's it my fault that YOU,"Ryan raised his finger and pointed it at her, "ran head long into me?" The girl just shrugged. "Fair enough arguement, I guess." Ryan sighed. "Ah, whatever, it's not like I'll die or anything. Just a bruise. So, what's your name? Or am I gonna have to call you Ms. I-run-into-people-to-introduce-myself?" With this remark, the girl bristled, her eyes very quickly turning from joking to mad. She crossed her arms and her breath came out in a huff. "Oh, come on, I didn't do it on purpose, you know. I was just trying to get away from the crowd so I could get a good glimpse at Beacon but I ran right into you..." Her expression and emotion changed once again, this time to sadness. "Sorry about that," she said with sorrow, rubbing her left arm and looking away from Ryan. Ryan's face eased up and his temper, along with his sarcasm, cooled. "So anyway," he said with an outstretched hand, "the name's Ryan. Ryan Kick." The girl looked up, took his hand, and shook it, firmly. "I'm Serena Orthos. Nice to meet you." Serena let go of his hand. "Nice to meet you too," Ryan replied. "Well the initiation speech is in a few minutes. Wanna head off to the-" Ryan was stopped short of his sentence when he heard a rather loud BOOM from behind him. Ryan and Serena exchanged looks before sprinting off in the direction of the explosion.

**A cliffhanger! So many ideas to pack into tons of pages, in such a limited amount of time. I just wish I had more time on my hands so that I could write more. So, anyway, those are two characters, the other two are still in hiding, for now. Can YOU guess what comes next in this story? By the way I was actually able to draw Ryan's sword, if you wanna check it out, I have a link right here directing you to it - art/Untitled-405896600?ga_submit_new=10%253A1381205047**


	2. Meeting a Colorful Bunch

**Finally, time for some RWBY characters to get involved! I don't own RWBY, yadda, yadda, yadda, let's get going!**

Several minutes after they had ran, the pair saw a girl laying the middle of a crater, eyes closed and arms spread out. The girl had black hair with red highlights. Black and red seemed to be what she was going for, since she had a red cloak with a hood that draped down close to her heels, a black blouse connected to a black skirt, with red ruffles at the end of it, and black leggings that spanned the length from the hem of her skirt, to her boots. The boots were up to her shins, black, with red heels. Ryan couldn't help but smile. She also had some peice of machinery attached to her belt at the back that was painted red and black. She looked defeated, AND seemed to be the source for the explosion. Ryan took a few steps and blocked out the sun from her face. "Hey," he said softly, hand extended to her, "the name's Ryan." The girl opened her eyes and stared up at him for a few seconds with her silver eyes.

"Ruby," she replied, grabbing his hand and smiling. Ryan hoisted her up with ease.

"Wait a second, you look familiar," Ryan looked at Ruby closely. Ruby turned back to Ryan after dusting herself off. He then snapped his fingers, a name being placed with the picture. "You're Ruby Rose!" After a few seconds, Ruby looked at Ryan, and she snapped her fingers as well.

"And you're Ryan Kick!" she exclaimed in excitement. All Serena could do was shake her head and stand by, watching the two talk. "But wait a second..." Ruby continued.

"You should be at Signal right now!" the two cried out in unison. Both their eyes went wide. "How did you get here early?" Ruby asked.

"Ozpin had a certain... promise he had to keep with me. So, he fulfilled it by bringing me to Beacon a year ahead." He gazed over at Ruby, but his eyes narrowed slightly. "But how in the heck did you get here?"

Ruby just giggled. "Let's just say I got Ozpin impressed and leave it at that."

"I don't mean to jump in at a bad time or anything," Serena spoke up after being out of the conversation for too long, "but you two are gonna make us late to that speech if we take any longer here." With that, Serena grabbed one of Ryan's and Ruby's arms, and began marching them to the main stage, where the speech was going to be made.

"Uhhhh, I don't mean to be rude or anything," Ruby started, "but who are you exactly?"

"My name is Serena Orthos," she smiled. "Nice to meet you Ruby Rose."

"Likewise," Ruby glanced in Ryan's direction, but he just shrugged. They were being pulled along anyway.

_Several minutes later..._

The group of three had finally arrived at the mian stage. Ruby was scanning the crowd, seeming to be searching for somone. Ryan had noticed that and he prodded the question, "Looking for someone Ruby?" Ruby nodded silently.

"Yep. I just don't see her... Oh, there she is! Yaaaang!" Ruby was waving the direction of a blonde haired girl. Her head snapped in the direction her name was called out, and a smile lit up her face when she realized it was Ruby who was calling for her. Ryan and Serena were unsure why. Ruby tugged at Ryan's arm. "C'mon, she's got some empty space beside her, you two should come and join us."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming, don't worry," he said as Ruby let go of his sweater and led the way through the crowd in Yang's direction. It seemed easy enough, but there were actually quite a number of people gathered at the viewing area of the stage. After navigating through the sea of initiates, Serena and Ryan caught up to Ruby, who was receiving what looked to be a rib crushing hug from the person known as Yang. Ryan cringed a little at this sight; it looked like it hurt. A lot. After Yang had dropped Ruby to the ground after all of her protest, Yang looked up and noticed Ryan and Serena standing there, looking at the two of them. "And you two would be...?" Yang trailed off, expecting an answer from Ryan or Serena.

Serena took up the conversation. "We're friends of Ruby's. I'm Serena, and this is Ryan." Ryan waved to point out who he was. Yang smiled and nodded her head.

"My name's Yang, Ruby's sister!" she chriped enthusiastically.

"Hang on a minute, you two are sisters?" Yang and Ruby nodded. "How? There isn't a single bit of resemblance between you two!"

Yang scratched her head and paused for a moment. "Well... its complicated." Yang wasn't about to elaborate, and was lucky when she heard the sound of someone testing the microphone used onstage for its audio quality.

"You!" an angry voice sharply snapped from behind the group of four.

Ruby immediately jumped up and landed into Ryan's arms. "Oh god, why now?" Ruby whined.

"You're lucky we weren't blown the side of the cliff, you klutz!" the white haired girl was obviously infuriated. The girl was literally the opitome of white. Her white hair was tied into a pony tail that hanged off the left side of her head, she had a white jacket, and a white shirt connected to her white skirt. She had a grey rapier hanging from the left side of her white belt, which was tied into a bow at the front. She also had ice blue eyes, harsh and cold. Her white, shin height boots gave her a bit of height, since the had a fair heel on them.

"Um, Ruby, care to elaborate on this please?" Ryan politely asked Ruby. Ruby hopped out of Ryan's arms to begin the explanation when someone cleared their throat and began to talk into the microphone. Everyone turned to direct their attention to Professor Ozpin, standing on top of the stage.

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the proptection of the people. But, I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this shcool will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you, to take the first step." Professor Ozpin stated.

Professor Goodwitch then took to the mic. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed!"

Yang immediately piped up after the professor's were done talking on the mic. "He seemed kinda... off."

Ruby nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, almost he wasn't even there."

The girl with white hair had her mouth open, ready to snap at Ruby, more than likely for something else that she did, when Ryan immediately cut her off. "Now now, I'm sure we can discuss this civially Miss...?" Ryan trailed off, leaving the girl in white to answer the question.

"Weiss Schnee," she replied, very matter-of-factly.

Serena spoke up, "Oh, like the Schnee Dust Company?"

"Exactly," Weiss confirmed. Meanwhile, a thought flashed through Ryan's mind. _Weiss Schnee... White Snow... Interesting. _Immediately Ryan picked up on what happened between Ruby and Weiss. _Klutz... Ruby must've tripped over Weiss or something... The explosion... Maybe it had something to do with... dust? Being blown off the cliff? There we go!_

"I'm gonna guess Ruby caused something of yours, maybe some Dust, to explode," Ryan guessed.

Ruby and Weiss just stared at him with gaping mouths. Serena just nodded. "Yeah, that would probably be the most logical explanation."

"This doesn't change anything, you child!" Weiss snapped after pulling herself together, and walking away with an attitude.

"Sheesh... Do you think she'll ever let up?" Yang asked concernedly.

Ryan and Ruby shrugged. "You never know... she might." Ryan replied.

"Well, I'm gonna head up to the ballroom and get my stuff ready for tomorrow," Serena said, "Anyone wanna join me?"

Ruby and Yang nodded, agreeing to go with Serena. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Yang said brightly. "Hey Ryan, you coming?"

"I'll be there later. I saw something that piqued my interest," Ryan replied in earnest.

"All right then," Ruby said, and the group of three girls turned and headed towards the main building where the ballroom was.

_So many colorful characters here at Beacon. _Ryan thought to himself, as he turned and met eyes with a boy who was staring straight at him. _And yet another one to add to the list. _Ryan smiled and waved his hand beckoning the boy over. "Come on, you crazy son of a gun! Staying out of the action always was your style!"

"Oh, piss off!" the boy retaliated. Ryan couldn't help but smile. Seeing that guy again really lifted his spirits. As if the three girls didn't do that enough for him though.

**Well, how was that? I wrote this part up real quick, so some mistakes and under-description are probably prevelent. By the way, I won't be uploading chapters to this story this frequently, I'm just leaving on vacation for the next 5 days, without any wi-fi, so I thought another chapter would be nice! Oh, and I took your advice koryandrs. Thank you very much! Stayed tuned! I'm out for now!**


	3. Friends of Past and Present

**My god, five days pass and I was unable to touch my beautiful keyboard and Computer! But now, I can! While I was away, I got TONS of ideas, and I think I'll be able to follow the RWBY story, just as much as putting in my own mixes as well! And only NOW do I realize I didn't add a description of Yang's outfit and look. Even though I'm sure you can all imagine what she looks like, I feel like I have to put it in regardless. So, sorry for that. Plus, a new goal of mine! From now on, every chapter will contain, at a bare minimum, 2,200 words! Yeah. I promise. Anyway, without any further ado, Chapter 3, Friends of Past and Present!**

Ryan smiled, looking over at the boy as he sauntered over and crushed Ryan in a giant bear hug. Ryan's breath was immediately cut short, but he was used to it, especially since he had known this guy for almost all his life. As the boy put Ryan down, he ruffled Ryan's hair, smiling broadly before asking him, "In all seriousness, how long did it take for THEM," he was gesturing to Ruby, Serena, and Yang, "to happen to bump into you?"

Ryan was beaming. "You know Tyler even after all these years, you're still the same touchy-feely, up-in your-business kid I met all those years ago." The two of them pumped fists. Ryan took his time to look over his life-long best bud, Tyler Peerk, who had topped out his height at what appeared to be 5'10". He let his dark brown hair lengthen longer than Ryan would've assumed Tyler'd like, reaching down past his ears. That one streak of ice-blue that passed through the right side of his head still hadn't been cut in the back, even after the past 6 years, reaching down past his shoulders. His dark blue eyes were shining with curiosity, as per usual, and they matched the general clothes he wore. The dark blue jean jacket he wore over top of his ice blue t-shirt had started to fade to a degree. His dark indigo jeans were cut up in multiple places, particularily around the knees. His white sneakers were spotless, almost looking brand new. Ryan knew that would change soon. He also noticed the double colored scarf that Tyler was wearing, the left side of it was a dark blue, the right side was ice blue. Ryan also to his time to note the freakin' GIGANTIC double bladed axe the guy was carrying.

"Good to know I'm not forgotten, even after having 4 years at Sanctum. Aside from that, I'm not surprised that you're here." All Ryan could do was raise an eyebrow at this statement. After a few seconds, realization dawned on him.

"Oh yeah, that's right... I did tell you about that didn't I..." Ryan muttered quietly. " Anyway, past is past! And to answer you're question, the green one, Serena, literally BUMPED into me, hard. My nose still hurts... I found the red and black one, Ruby, in a crater, and I helped her up, being that gentleman that I am, "he added the last part with mock modesty, "and the yellow one, Yang, is Ruby's sister."

Tyler was gazing off in the direction of the three girls, staring off into space. Ryan smirked before smacking the back of his head lightly, bringing him back to the present. "You know, they're my friends too," Ryan reminded Tyler, "if you want I'll introduce them to you sometime." Tyler just mided absentmindedly. Ryan rolled his eyes. "I told them I would catch up with them in the ballroom, so do you wanna kill a bit of time, or what's your game?" Tyler was gone again. Ryan never got annoyed about it, just one of the things that made Tyler who he was. Ryan was tempted to hit him a little harder this time, making sure to bring Tyler back to the present. Ryan wound up his arm, bringing it behind himself to get more velocity, but he caught his hand on what felt like someone else's head. Ryan heard a small squeal of alarm, quickly retracting his arm back to his side, and whirling around to apologize to the individual he had potentially hurt. This squeal also snapped Tyler out of his daze, and he snapped his head to the direction he heard the scream coming from. However, they both did not expect to see the individual that was standing there.

"Oh my god, it can't be!" Ryan and Tyler shouted in unison. The individual in question had turned her head, and stared at the two boys, her initial face full of panic and fear, but it quickly turned to happiness and joy.

"Oh wow! It's Ryan and Tyler! It's been such a long time guys!" the girl cried out happily. Ryan and Tyler just stood there, mouths agape. The girl gave a look of confusion, and waved her hand in front of their faces. "Hello?" the girl asked. Nothing still. The girl abruptly got upset, and pulled the bo-staff she had on her back off, swinging it at an average speed, and knocking the both of them on the back of their heads. "And that's what you get for not answering a lady's question!" she huffed irritadedly, swinging the staff's band around her body, and leaving it on her back. She crossed her arms in front of herself, and continuously tapped her foot impatiently. "Well?" her voice was escalatingly loud.

A muffled groan came from the body of Tyler, who had picked himself up slowly and groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "Nice to see you too Alexis..." This didn't alleviate her mood to any extent, what with Ryan still planted firmly on the ground. A rather loud groan came from the inert body that was Ryan, as he picked himself up off the ground, slowly, rubbing the back of his head as well.

"You know, my face has already had an express meeting with the concrete once today," rubbing his nose with his other hand. Ryan cringed a little, his nose extremely sore. "I'm so lucky my uncle outfitted me with these shatterproof lenses," he said pulling off his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt. "As much as that was uncalled for," Ryan started, an angry looking Alexis glaring back at him, "it's nice to see you after all those years Alexis." Alexis' mood finally lightened up, and put the two boys into a hug.

"I missed you two so much! I only had two years with each of you of course!" she replied, recalling the fact that she went to Signal for her first two years of Huntress training with Ryan, but promptly switched out to Sanctum so that she could be with Tyler. The pair had promptly become boyfriend and girlfriend, or so it had been told, for a few months or so. That was before something created a fallout between the two. But, Alexis was the forgive and forget kind of person, and the two remained as good friends. Ryan and Tyler were still rubbing the back of their heads when Alexis spoke up again. "But, Ryan," she started a look curiosity plastered on her face, "why are you here? You aren't seventeen yet."

Ryan was about to answer, when he was abuptly interrupted by Tyler, who answered the question for him. "Ozpin's promise to Ryan," Tyler said. "Remember?" Alexis just nodded in a reply, happily skipping along.

"Oh yeah, your special birthmark-arm glowey... thingy," she said, distracted by something else, but god knows what. Alexis was such a difficult person to handle sometimes.

_Changes like the weather, _Ryan thought to himself. _And two years certainly changed how she looks as well. _Still rubbing the back of his head, Ryan looked over his old friend. The seventeen year old still had her light auburn hair at the top her head, but Ryan had noticed that it slowly transitioned into a bright blonde as it reached its end, midway down her back. It was curled to a small extent, _naturally_, Ryan assumed, and some of it hung foward, over her shoulders. Her burnt almond colored eyes still retained the fire of carefree and happiness that she usually had. In a way, her outfit was very similar to that of Ruby's, in the sense that she had an orange shirt that connected to her shirt that ended roughly at midway down her thigh. The skirt itself had a yellow frill around it, matching the unbuttoned yellow jacket that she wore over top of the shirt. Her boots were brown and came up to her shins, stopping there, and had a slight heel to them. Her brown bo-staff was slung over her back, the band that connected at each end spanned across her chest so that her weapon wouldn't go anywhere.

"Well, as much as I'd love to say and remenisce on old times," Ryan said abruptly, "I've got an agenda to keep, meeting up with some other ones. I'll just leave the two of you if that's fine." To Ryan's surprise, Tyler nodded. Alexis was spinning in circles now. Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation, sharply drawing his breath and letting it go slowly.

"That's fine. I don't know if she smacked me hard enough in the head or something, but I think I can handle her." Tyler gazed over at the form of Alexis, laying on the ground laughing. Tyler quickly snapped to Ryan gain. "You might wanna go before she does something that makes me regret this decision." Immediately after hearing those words, Ryan saluted and left a trail of dust in his wake. Tyler turned around again, to stare at Alexis. "Now..." he asked himself, "what am I gonna do with you?" Alexis just giggled. Tyler waved it off. "Aaah, I'm sure I'll think of something."

Everyone called Ryan a champion sprinter, and today was no exception. He had quite literally ran from the stage, and got into the locker room in the course of exactly, Ryan had timed himself, 15.8 seconds. Would've taken him at least 10 minutes to walk at his normal pace and get there. Ryan then took his sword out of its brace, and placed down beside himself. Ryan then walked over to his locker and pulled out his "Tinker Kit" as he liked to call it. It was full of tools that he used to tune up, or repair his weapon. He set himself back down on the bench he had his sword at. "Now then Supernova," he muttered to himself, "Time for a tune-up."

After screwing around, trying to put the tune-up in, for almost 45 minutes Ryan had finally installed the Fire dust function into his sword. Ryan stood up triumphantly, holding Supernova outward. Ryan stared at his dust wheel. He turned it to each of his dust types, testing to see if he screwed up anything. First, he set it to **(Okay, as I am writing this part, it dawns on my that I said at the start of this story that white was the equivalent for wind in Ryan's sword. I also realize that it is IMPOSSIBLE for that to happen. So, wind is now reformed to green. God damn, I feel stupid...)** green and Supernova lit up green. Ryan nodded to himself proudly. He then set it to all the remaining colors, blue, ice blue, purple, brown, yellow, and finally, red. Every single function was working properly. Ryan smiled to himself, triumphantly watching his own work in action. He then proceeded to clean up his mess, and put his Tinker Kit and Supernova into his locker for tomorrow. He pulled out his pajama bottoms, purple, imprinted with his sign, a shooting star, in places all around it, and his purple sleeping bag. He quckly changed into his pajama pants, and had put on a shirt that had the right sleeve ripped off, leaving his left one intact, and proceeded to head to the ballroom to meet up with the three girls he had left behind earlier.


	4. An Eventful First Night

**Seriously, I write WAAAY too much sometimes... Chapter 4 - An eventful FIrst Night**

Shortly after making the small trek from the locker room to the ballroom, Ryan arrives, sits down and begins to relax with Serena and Ruby. Serena was dressed a bright green night gown, whereas Ruby had white pajama pants dotted with pink rose designs. She coupled that with a black tank top that looked to be one size too big for her, and a black headband wrapped around her head. Ryan dropped his sleeping bag, and plopped himself down right on top of it. Ruby looked up from writing, and Serena looked up after she had finished putting her hair in a ponytail. "Hey Ryan," They said together.

"Hey you two," Ryan looked around for a few seconds and noticed that something was missing. "Where's Yang?" Ryan asked the pair, curious about her whereabouts.

"She just went to change, she should be back any min-" Ruby had started, but had been finished with yellow bundle of happiness running headlong into the group. Or rather, ran, stopped abruptly, and flopped onto her sleeping bag.

"It's like one huge slumber party!" Yang beamed joyfully. She was wearing a bright orange tank top and quite short brown shorts.

"I'm pretty Dad wouldn't approve of all the boys though," Ruby retaliated quietly.

"I know I do," Yang replied before purring at the sight of all the boys. Ryan gave a sharp whistle, not wanting to be out of the attention. "Oh, hey Ryan!"

"Yang you seriously should consider lowering you voice volume right now. Others are probably trying to sleep," Ryan tersely told his blonde friend. She was completely indifferent on the matter, and just brushed him off.

"Watcha doin' Ruby?" Yang asked her little sister.

"Just writing to the gang back at Signal," Ruby replied quietly. Ryan frowned upon hearing her words. She almost sounded depressed. She did however, turn her gaze to look in Ryan's direction. "Say, Ryan," Ryan turned to Ruby, giving her his full attention. "Why do your shirts have the left sleeve on, but the right one off?"

"Ah... so that's what you wanna know... Maybe another time okay?" Ruby was suprised at Ryan's sudden privacy claim, but she respected it, nonetheless.

Ryan needed something to distract himself. He didn't need to be thinking about his arm right now. He quickly found his distraction when he heard the sound of a match striking, and a source of light being produced. Ryan had turned to look at a girl with black hair, leaning against the wall she was at, and attempting to read her book. Ryan was curious at his first glance of her. He would've probably gone over and introduced himself, but Ryan felt it would be rude if he interrupted her reading session. As he had finished his internal debate on the situation, he quickly saw Yang dragging Ruby in her direction. Ryan's curiosity was immediately piqued, so he decided to follow the sisterly duo.

"Hey Serena, I'm gonna be back in a few minutes," Ryan told his friend. Her only response was a nod. She seemed indifferent on the matter, so he got up and walked over to the new trio.

"Blake" was the only word Ryan had caught in their current discussion. As Ryan had arrived, he had noticed the girl in black was far less than ecstatic talking to Yang and Ruby. As he got up beside Ruby he began to click into the conversation. "I like your bow! It goes great with your... pajamas!" Yang was beaming brightly.

The only response given to this statement was a curt, "Right." Ryan quickly went over to Yang and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her close so she could hear what he was about to tell her. "Yang, what in the heck do you think you are doing?" Ryan hissed into her ear, his grip on her arm remaining firm.

"Excuse me for being a big sister, alright!" Yang hissed back rather angrily.

"Yang, you know that you aren't always gonna be there to help your little sister, right? Just carrying her along and doing things for her that she isn't comfortable with aren't gonna teach her anything!" Ryan retorted, his voice rising, but abruptly quieting. "I know that feeling all too well..." His grip slackened on Yang's arm, his face plastered with a look of hurt. "Sorry Yang." Yang had looked at him, seeming to come up with a conclusion for Ryan's reasoning behind his actions. She just quietly returned back to Serena.

Aside from that little drama, Ruby and "Blake" had continued their conversation, and Blake seemed willing to talk. Ryan had tapped into their conversation, even after missing some of it. "I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters..." Ruby paused briefly, "they're one of the reasons why I wanted to become a huntress."

The girl in black chuckled slightly. "Why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" she asked curiously.

"Well I'm hoping that we all will," Ruby replied in earnest. "As a girl, I wanted to be just like th heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right, and protected others who couldn't protect themselves."

The girl in black's amber eyes began twinkling. "That's very ambitious for a child," she said with a weak smile, but it quickly gave way to a dark stare. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairytale."

Ruby had brightened considerably. "Well, that's why we're here. To make it better."

And, once again, out of nowhere, comes the yellow bundle of happiness, picking up her sister and squeezing her into a big bear hug. "Oooooh! That's my little sister!"

Ruby was extremely annoyed at Yang's actions, and she retaliated, shouting "Cut it out!" And thus, a fight between the near inseperable sisters broke out. Ryan was short on his own surprise, and just stared blankly at what was ocurring in front of him. He thought it'd be a good idea to let those two figure out their issue by themselves. So, he went and introduced himselfto "Blake", even after his debate with himself earlier.

"Your name's Blake isn't it?" Ryan asked, putting on his best, Hey-I'm-just-a-nice-guy-trying-to-get-to-know-some one-new voice. The girl just looked up at him, her amber eyes flashing with curiosity.

"Yes... You are?" she replied quietly. Ryan could immediately tell that this girl wasn't always the way she is now. She probably did her best to avoid any kind of contact with people in general. Ryan assumed Ruby must've made her more comfortable with talking at this current time.

Ryan simply smiled. "I'm Ryan. A recent friend of the tussling duo over there," he nudged towards the dust cloud that was currently Ruby and Yang. The girl nodded, seeming to understand. "What's the book about?" Ryan asked intently.

Blake answered immediately, "It's a book about a man with two souls. Each fighting for control over his body."

Ryan nodded, showing that he understood. "Ah, I see. That's interesting. Maybe, then, I'm assuming you've read the old story of the Being of Dust?" Blake looked at Ryan quizzically, tilting her head to the side. "I can give you the short version if you want." Blake had nodded, but before Ryan could even start, he had heard and all too familiar angry and harsh voice.

"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you know that people are trying to sleep?!" came the voice of Weiss, before she had quickly realized who the culprits of all the noise were.

And then came the shout of, "Oh no, not you again!" from both Yang and Weiss together. Ruby immediately tried to hush both parties of the arguement down. Ryan looked at Blake, and pointed toward them, mouthing the words, "One minute, be right back." Blake gave a small giggle.

"Okay you two break it up." Ryan had effectively seperated Weiss and Yang. "And before you two say anything, here's how this is going to work. Yang, you're going to remain quiet for the rest of tonight so that others can sleep. Weiss, your gonna go back to wherever it is you recently came from, go to sleep, and let me handle Yang. Any questions?" Yang and Weiss had both opened their mouths to retort, but Ryan immediately said firmly, "No? Good! Now seperate!" Ruby dragged Yang away from the group, and back to Serena, while Weiss just left.

Ryan sighed, exasperated, and sat down beside Blake. "Hope you don't mind. I can back off a little if need be." Ryan felt he had sat down a little to close to Blake, perhaps for her liking. She shook her head, repling that she was fine with it. And THAT'S when Ryan realized he had completely forgotten what it was he was going to tell Blake. He had a good memory in general, it just fell flat on its face sometimes. "Do you remember what I was going to tell you? Because my memory just crashed."

Blake had opened her mouth to give a reply, but she stopped as well. "you know... I don't actually. I was too busy watching your... diplomacy skills at work."

Ryan chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't think they were THAT good... I just was hasty to get a resolution to arise, even if I have to be the arbiter I guess." The two of them laughed a little. Then, Ryan had finally realized that Blake had a bow in her hair. "You wear a bow." he told her simply, as if she didn't know that she wore one.

Blake nodded. "Yes, I do have a bow in my hair. What's the big deal?"

"Well, it's just that you don't see a lot of girls with bows in their hair anymore. Especially at this age," Ryan replied.

Blake looked quizzical. "Why does it matter then?" she asked.

Ryan shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just think it looks cute." This statement had earned a small blush from Blake, and Ryan was quite thoroughly unaware of the compliment he just gave Blake. Ryan then heard the big clock in the school bell began to gong, and he looked at his watch. "Yikes, 10 o'clock! Sorry Blake, but I'm gonna have to catch you later," Ryan got up to leave, hoisting himself up and off the ground with his hands, inadvertently placing his hand on top of Blake's left hand in the process. Once again, Ryan was unaware of what he did. "That's alright, right? Seeing you again?" Blake had a bit more of an intense blush now, and she nodded, let him know that she was fine with it. Ryan, continuing to be the oblivious, smiled. "Alright then, see ya Blake!" He waved to her as he went back to his original group. Blake looked off after him. She looked at her left hand, and smiled, shortly afterwards, blowing out her candelabra.

Ryan got back to his group and saw that everyone was out like a light. As he got down into his sleeping bag, he heard Yang stir. She rolled over and looked at him, roughly 4 feet away from where he was. "What was that whole deal with Ruby about?" Yang asked Ryan.

Ryan sighed, debating whether or not to tell his curious friend. "Can you wait until after tomorrow's initiation? I'm not in the mood right now," Ryan replied. Yang nodded, respecting his privacy. SHe rolled over, and Ryan could hear her go to sleep. _Whether or not to tell Yang my past... and whether or not she'll tell others. Eventually all my new friends will find out. One way or another. _Ryan quietly thought to himself before drifting off into the fields of sleep.

**Did I make the pairing way too obvious? Maybe.**


	5. Just Chugging Along

**Time for the first order of business - my business. I have school, and sometimes it isn't nice to me. Homework. I work, and that takes time out of my day AFTER I get home from school. Usually til 8. So, in short, sometimes I don't have a lot of time, or the inspiration to get these chapters done. So, uploads may or may not become set to a certain date. I aim for at least 2 chapters a week, each chapter containing 2000 words minimum. So, we all clear? Good. Back to the story then. I don't own RWBY, just my charcters, Ryan, Serena, Tyler and Alexis. This is chapter 5, Chugging Along.**

"Nnngh..." Ryan did NOT feel like getting up. Too many thoughts strewn across the vastness of his ever-working mind. Blake. Ryan didn't realize til now what he actually said to her last night. The only question was, was what does Blake think about it? Ruby. Her curiosity towards Ryan's reason for covering his left arm all the time. He knows that he's gonna have to tell his new friends eventually. Yang. Ryan's outburst towards her with Ruby. Ryan sighed to himself. _Do I really want to travel back down that road? That road full of... loss? Pain? Anguish? _Of course, with all these thoughts running ramoant, Ryan was able to forget one solitary fact that he SHOULDN'T have forgotten.

The bell of the school rang its gong, shattering Ryan out of his dream state. He sat up sharply, letting his gaze drift around himself. There was no one here. Maybe they had gone for breakfast. Ryan casually glanced down at his watch. And realized that he had exactly 16 minutes to get dressed, grab himself breakfast, and scoot himself up to the cliffs where the initiation was gonna start. "Oh, crap!"

Channelling his inner champion sprinter, he belted over to his locker and slipped into his outfit faster than you could blink. He quickly pulled Supernova from the locker and put it into his brace. Ryan then slammed the locker shut, and streaked across the school to try and get to the cafteria on time. _Oh, god, please let there be SOMETHING left there! _As Ryan made it, he quickly found it was empty, but there was a solitary plate with 4 pancakes stacked on top of it. "Rrgh!" was all Ryan could muster, as he picked up the plate, and practically inhaled the whole stack of it in a second. _That's gonna bite me in the ass later, I just know it._

After pulling off a stunt which most thought impossible, he continued his impossible feat, and dashed as fast as he could to get to the cliffs. The trail of smoke and dust left in the air was certainly large. And roughly two minutes later, after having to run ALL the way to the cliffs, which were actually a mildly far distance away from the Academy building, Ryan had arrived at his destination, panting so hard and drawing his breath so raggedly that one would almost assume he was close to dying or something of the sort. In fact, he had run so fast that the dust cloud he had produced had blown in after he had stopped, causing the group around him to cough from it.

As the dust settled down, and everyone had finished coughing, Ryan had looked up, still panting hard, and saw that he was standing on some form of white platform. He turned his gaze to beside himself, and saw Blake standing there, peering at him. He raised his hand in welcome. "Mornin'," he drew out raggedly. Blake just smirked and directed her attention elsewhere. He then looked over what Blake was wearing. She had black low-heeled boots and stockings that start off black at her hips, but gradually faded to purple as they neared her shoes. On the outside of her stockings, there were white symbols, but Ryan couldn't tell what they were. She has black ribbons wrapping around both of her arms, with a black detached sleeve with a silver band on her left arm. Blake has a black buttoned vest with coattails, and a white, sleeveless undershirt that exposes part of her midriff with white shorts that may be connected to her shirt. Blake also wears a detached scarf-like collar around her neck. After looking her over, Ryan smiled. He liked the look.

Ryan then looked to his right, to find Tyler standing beside him, Serena standing one more platform over. Tyler was standing there, looking in Ryan's direction, arms crossed, his demeanour giving off the vibe of knowingness. The silly smile he almost always wore was plastered on his face. He was on the verge of laughing, his face giving away the fact that he was trying not to. Ryan just stared at him for a few seconds. He then sighed in defeat, "It's never fun when I don't get a wake-up call."

Tyler couldn't help himself and he burst out laughing, loudly. After Ryan waited for Tyler to calm down, Tyler wiped a tear from his eye. "Maybe you should've WARNED your nice new friends beforehand, eh?" And, he started laughing again. Great.

"Silence please, Mr. Peerk." Tyler immediately stopped laughing, and straightened his stance, Ryan as well. Ozpin was in a cut to the chase mood today. "Good. For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch took up talking, "Now, I'm sure all of you have heard of the assignement of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be getting teammates. Today."

Ozpin bagan again, "These teammates will be with you for the remainder of your time here at Beacon. So, it is within your best interests to be paired with someone whom you can work well with. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years."

That's when Ryan heard it. "WHAT?!" Ryan raised an eyebrow. Sounded like Ruby.

Ozpin continued regardless, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you WILL die. You will be monitered and graded for the duration of your initiation. But, our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Ryan looked further down the row, since Blake was first to be sent off. The blonde boy who had thrown up on the ship had his hand raised. Ryan just brushed it off. "Good! Now, take your positions." Ryan turned right and looked at Blake. Ryan gave her a wave, sending her off, and watched as she flew through the air.

"Me next," Ryan spoke to himself with excitement. He felt the platform he was standing on click, and before he knew it he was in the air. Ryan just laid back and relaxed for the duration of his trip in the air. _Flying through the sky is always such a bizarre feeling..._ His thoughts were interrupted by a blazing ball of blonde flying through the sky, straight towards Ryan. "Oh, COME ON!" Ryan pulled out Supernova and set it to Wind, slashing downwards and creating a wind current, pushing him upwards. Ryan only barely got out of the way in time.

"Sorry 'bout that Ryan!" Yang called back, but she wasn't caring too much about it. Ryan just sighed under his breath.

He looked up and noticed his landing site fast approaching. And by landing site, he meant giant tree. Ryan took hold of Supernova and began swinging it in front of himself, creating a wind current and slowing his own speed. However, Ryan quickly realized, it wasn't going to be enough. _Okay then... Let's try..._ Ryan swung his sword hard, and he stuck into the tree. The stop worked a little TOO well, and Ryan's shoulder suffered for it.

"Guh! Okay, that's ALSO gonna bite me in the ass later..." Ryan dislodged his sword from the tree and jumped down, roughly 15 feet, and landing perfectly on two feet. Ryan smiled to himself. "Hehe, not a scratch." And that's when he heard it. The sound of someone shouting. He just couldn't make out what it was or where he was coming quickly figured out it was coming from behind him, and whirled around. Well, was going to, before he got nailed on the back of his head and facceplanted into the ground. For the third time. In the past 24 hours. Ryan just laid face down in the ground, his anger starting to boil over a little, "OKAY!" He picked himself up quickly and turned around to face the source of his current pain, "WHO'S THE WISE G-" Ryan was stopped short as he looked down a bit, and guess who he found. Serena. Again. Ryan facepalmed. "Aw, COME ON!"

Serena stood there, looking him over. She laughed a little, "Yup, hehe, you're fine." Ryan was annoyed, his anger visibly showing. But, it died down, and noticed something different.

"Serena, whats with those... uh..." Ryan looked to Serena's arms and attempted to describe what were over them.

"What these?" Serena lifted them upward and Ryan nodded. "They're my weapons! Namely, Reef Blades," she said, lifting up her arms again. "They're like gloves that come up to your elbows, but the weapon is inside them!" She swung both her arms outward, and revealed a line of rather large, jagged looking teeth coming out the outside edge of the gloves. **(Imagine, if you will, the blades that Jango Fett used in Star Wars 2, to stop himself from falling down the building. If you haven't seen the movie, I'll do my damndest to describe them right now) **

**They were fingerless dark green gloves that came up to her elbows. On the top of her hand, was a small cannon looking thing. Serena has a trigger in her palms that she can squeeze and a shotgun blast comes out. (Yang's Ember Celica, but far from as powerful) Then, from her wrist to her elbow, on the portion of the glove facing away from her body, a row of jagged blades, jutting outward, like a serrated knife almost, but more of a random pattern instead. After pressing a button, she can swing her arms and the blades come out and act like an anchor, wrapping around things in the way that Gambol Shroud can. **

"So, what? You fight practically bare fisted?" Ryan looked at his new friend with amusement. Serena giggled in response and shook her head, facing her arm away from Ryan and letting loose a shotgun blast on the tree Ryan had used to land. She put a solid hole though the whole thing. Ryan's eye twitched. "So, I shouldn't have to worry about in a fight then." Serena nodded, giggling a little. "All right then. Now, which way is north...?" Ryan pulled out Supernova and shoved it into the ground, straight up and down. It slowly began to pull to the left of Ryan, and Serena gasped in amazement. "Okay,"Ryan pointed in the same direction as his sword, "That way's north. My sword is built with a small magnetic charge, barely sensitive enough to pick up on the ground's magnetic polarity signature." Serena raised an eyebrow, and Ryan sighed. He'd have to dumb down his explanation a bit. "My sword can point north when shoved into the ground," he explained.

"Well, no time to lose right?" Serena asked him excitedly. "Come on, let's get going," she continued, grabbing Ryan's arm in the process and pulling him along at a rather quick speed.

"Woah, hey!" Ryan was quick to want to pull away but... He didn't mind being dragged along. "Whatever... makes no difference to me. Just as long as we make it in time..." Ryan muttered under his breath. "Oh, yeah. I should proabably tell you something right now Serena." Serena turned to face her partner that she was dragging behind her. "I need to be woken up from my sleep more than half the time. This morning? CASE IN POINT!" He finished with a twinge of anger.

Serena just smiled. "Hey, I'll make sure to get your lazy butt of bed next time." Ryan huffed. _I'm not THAT lazy Serena..._

**That wasn't too bad, right? And, I think I found my running joke for this story. Can you guess what it is? Reviews appreciated!**


	6. Fighting at the Ruins

**YAY! I have a light work schedule, and school has slowed down! This can only mean one thing... Working on mah story! *Party poppers go off and confetti showers* Anyway, so yeah, this is the next chapter. I'm really proud of the next chapter after this one. It'll finally show what Ryan's reasoning is for his arm sleeve. **

**Anyway, I don't own RWBY. (Wish I did) This is Chapter 6 Fighting at the Ruins**

After walking for a solid 10 minutes, Serena and Ryan had found themselves at the temple. Nothing really happened to the pair since departing to the temple. "Wow. This must've been important to someone at some time," Ryan muttered to himself. Serena was more interested on what she found sitting atop of the pedastels dotted in a ring around the temple floor. She quickly snatched up one of the pieces. Ryan, however, had caught her in his peripheral vision. "Okay Serena, which one is it?"

"The black queen?" she asked, holding out her hand, and giving a sheepish look. Ryan just smirked.

"Hey, it makes no difference to me what piece it is, as long as we get a piece," Ryan shrugged to his partner, walking along the trail of pedastels and looking at the remaining pieces.

"And there's that carefree attitude that you're practically famous for," a familiar voice called out. "Doesn't matter what, as long as it happens."

Ryan chuckled to himself. "Come on out Tyler, I got someone to introduce to you." Shortly after Ryan had called his friend out, Tyler barreled out of the bushes and into the line of sight.

He promptly stopped for a few seconds before spreading his arms out and shouting, "I'm bringing sexy back!" and dancing like a total buffoon. Serena raised her eyebrow, a troubled look forming upon her face. She turned to Ryan, but he was too busy almost dying from the lack of air he was receiving, since he was laughing WAY too hard. Serena pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, but couldn't help smirking a little at the situation. That's when Tyler's partner decided to show up.

"Okay, okay. Keep telling yourself that, your modesty will attract the girls for sure," came a mock stern voice. With that Alexis also jumped out the bushes, landing beside Tyler. "I'm gonna clarify this for you..." Tyler turned to Alexis, stopping his stupid dancing. Alexis' face immediately lit up with her silly grin, "I'M the one who's bringing sexy back!" pointing towards herself with both hands and jamming out as well. Serena just sighed. Ryan was still laughing like a maniac, rolling on the ground and holding his stomach with both arms.

"Are you guys always this crazy?" came a loud, cheerful voice. Everyone turned to see Yang strolling out the bushes and into the destination site.

Ryan was still laughing, but he got up and wiped a tear from his eye. "Hahaha... ahhh... My sides hurt... Mornin' Yang! And yes, these two are usually like this. Speaking of which, I'm not surprised you two got together." Yang had stopped in the middle of the temple ruins. "Yang, where's your partner? Or did you not get one yet?" Yang winked at him, pointing in the direction of the bushes of which she had come out of. And who else to come out of the very same area but Blake. She had brushed herself off and looked towards the group of people gathered at the ruins. And then she sighed. She slowly walked her way to ruins, not speaking a single greeting, or word for that matter, not bothering to make eye contact with anyone.

"So! I should probably get some introductions outta the way!" Ryan called out enthusiastically, trying to get past the seemingly uncomfortable akwardness. "Yang, Blake and Serena, these are my childhood friends Alexis and Tyler, Alexis and Tyler, these are my recent friends, Yang and Blake, along with my partner, Serena!"

"Nice to meet'cha!" Yang beamed happily, waving towards the pair. Blake just blinked. It became obvious to everyone that she was a girl of few words.

"Likewise. Well I guess we had better pick a piece Alexis," Tyler gestured to his friend, who nodded her head. They both made their way up to the many pedastels littered around the ruins.

"Hey, that's sounds like a great idea!" Yang shouted, skipping over to the nearest pedastel. "Hey, Ryan which one did you guys pick?"

Ryan was about to answer, however a hand was placed firmly on his mouth, stopping him. "It's a secret." Ryan looked upon Serena, who had answered the question for him. Ryan attempted to talk thorugh Serena's hand, but she kept it firmly held in its place. She quickly turned and glared knives and daggers at him. Ryan's eyes widened in surprise, and he shut his mouth. Serena took her hand off Ryan's mouth, relieved to see his mouth was firmly shut. She then wiped her hand on the left sleeve Ryan's sweater. Ryan quickly snapped to Serena and grabbed her hand, gripping it tightly and forcefully tearing it away from his immediate area.

"You see this?" Ryan pointed the sleeve of his left arm. "You don't ever, in any circumstances, EVER touch my left arm!" he announced brusquely, letting go of Serena's hand. Serena flinched from this sudden change in attitude. That's when she noticed something different about Ryan.

"Were your eyes always purple?" Serena asked as soon as she had noticed Ryan's oddity. Ryan blinked.

"My eyes are hazel. You know that." he replied a little bit too fast. Serena had opened her mouth to retaliate, but she saw that Ryan's eyes had become hazel again. _Am I seeing things?_ Serena thought to herself.

"Uh, hello?" Ryan and Serena turned to the source of the voice. Yang was trying to catch the pair's attention. "If you two lovebirds would stop flirting over there, we could get moving!" Yang teased the two of them.

"We were just talking... Don't have to label us something we aren't," Serena replied immediately, crossing her arms. "So, you guys got your pieces?" Everyone else nodded. "Good. We should prob-" Serena was cut off by one of the most ungodly sounds that any of them had ever heard. It was the extremely high pitched scream of someone obviously in trouble.

"Did you guys hear that?" Yang asked everyone in alarm. Yang whirled around to consult Blake. "Blake, what should we-" Yang was cut off by the fact that Blake was pointing upwards to something in the sky. Everyone had looked up and saw Ruby falling through the air, flailing her arms and shouting "Heads uuuuuup!"

Ryan had quickly pulled Supernova out of its brace, and prepared to catch the falling girl. Just as he was about to, a blonde boy had crashed into Ruby and landing the pair into a neighbouring tree. "Did your sister just fall out of the sky?" Blake asked the general group. Yang had attempted to answer this question, but was cut short by the sound of something large crashing through the nearby trees. A wild Ursa Grimm was standing on its hind legs, flailing about, but its movements cut short by the sound of an explosion and a flash of pink from behind it. The Ursa toppled foward and landed, sending a girl flying off its back. Ryan, Serena, Tyler and Yang looked on at the sight with slack jaws.

"Awwwww! I broke it..." the girl from the top of the Ursa exclaimed. The girl had orange hair, fairly long, and turquoise eyes. She was wearing a pink skirt that starts at the waist and ends mid-thigh, along with shoes that are a mix of pink and white with pink laces. She appears to be wearing some form of black and white body armor, along with cut off white sleeves for her arms. She promptly disappeared from where she had landed, and materialized on the toppled Ursa's head, peering at the unmoving form of the monster.

"Nora!" a male voice called sharply from behind the Ursa. A boy dressed in green with black hair appeared from behind the body. He was panting a lot. "Please... Don't ever do that again," he had tried to tell Nora, but she had dashed off of the Ursa's head, leaving a faint pink outline, and the boy searching frantically for her whereabouts.

"Oooh!" Nora peered at a white rook piece. Ryan jumped in surprise as he found the girl standing literally inches away from him, not knowing that she was even there. It didn't help that she was quite an amount shorter than he was. Nora grabbed the piece triumphantly and began singing, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

That was before the boy had found out where she went. "NORA!" Okay, he was pissed.

Nora had stopped singing and playing with the piece. She immediately saluted and giggled, "Heehee, coming Ren," dropping the piece into her open hand and skipping over to the boy.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked nonchalantly. Yang had opened her mouth to attempt to respond with an answer. That was before she got interrupted by a deathstalker crashing through the nearby trees. Running in front of said deathstalker was yet another girl. And she was hard pressed to not get snapped in half. She was barely running fast enough to stay ahead of the stupid grimm.

"Come on Alexis, Pyrrha needs help," Tyler immediately told his partner. Alexis nodded, pulling her staff off her back and running headlong into the grimm, laughing.

"Who?" Ryan asked quizzically, trying his best to ignore Alexis' weird laugh.

Tyler sighed. "Explain later." With that, he wrestled his axe off his back and joined the fray. That was when Ruby decided to jump down from wherever she was and join the remaining group. As she rolled up beside the group and popped up to her feet Yang turned and noticed her.

"Ruby?" Yang had asked.

Ruby immediately looked up, and her face lit up with delight, seeing her sister. "Yang!" She sounded happy, and went in to hug her sister. Of course, that's before Nora showed up again.

She literally popped up out of nowhere, coming up between the two, shouting out her own name. "Nora!" she called out enthusiastically.

Blake seemed unwavered this entire time. "Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Yang face growingly became frustrated.

"Grrr. I CAN'T IT ANYMORE!" Everyone jumped back, startled, as a small fire blast emanated around her body. "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!" she shouted out in rage, panting slightly.

"Your sister doesn't take stress very well, can she Ruby?" Serena asked the young girl. Ruby nodded her head in agreement.

"I can hear you, ya know!" Yang snapped back angrily, approaching the now worried looking Serena.

Ruby looked up into the sky and her face became troubled. She tapped Yang's shoulder, trying to catch her attention. "Um, Yang..."

"WHAT?!" Yang sounded like her anger was getting the better of her. Ruby pointed upward, and Yang followed. After Yang had noticed whatever it was that had caught Ruby's attention, she slumped over in defeat and exasperation.

Everyone turned their gazes upwards, and saw a giant crow looking thing flying through the sky. The noticable detail was that something white was hanging off one of its talons. "How could you leave me?" was all that could be heard. Okay, someone.

"I told her to jump," Ruby replied the question.

"She's gonna fall," Blake replied monotonously.

"She'll be fine," Ruby replied indifferently.

Then the Ren boy piped up out of nowhere, "She's falling."

That's when everyone turned to Ryan. Ryan returned their gazes. "What? Oh, fine." Getting the hint they were giving off, Ryan pulled Supernova out of its brace, pointing it towards the ground and setting it to Wind. "I'll get her."

But before Ryan took the chance, the blonde boy from earlier came flying out of the tree he had landed in, catching the falling Weiss in his arms. Ryan could see his lips move, but didn't hear anything. That's when the boy had noticed that he wasn't planted firmly on the ground. So, the pair clutched each other and began falling to the ground. The boy landed first, face first, followed by Weiss who had landed on his back. Every onlooker grimaced at the sight. Except for Blake of course.

Then, Tyler, Alexis, and the supposed Pyrrha, came crashing to the ground in front of the group of six. "Man, that thing's TOUGH!" Tyler shouted, picking himself up off the ground.

"Well now we can all die together," Yang added lowly.

"Not if I can help it." Ruby had a determined look plastered on her face.

"Ruby wait-" Ryan tried to warn her friend, but she was gone already, charging towards the Deathstalker. She took her scythe off her back, transforming it. She had fired off a bullet, increasing her speed, but the Deathstalker just swatted her away with its claw.

Ruby picked herself back up. "D-Don't worry!" she called back to the rest, brushing off her failure like it was nothing. "Totally fine!" Then, she turned back to the Deathstalker. She fired off another shot, aimed at the beast, but yielded no results. So, she made the smart decision, for once, and decided to run away from the monster.

Yang's big sister instincts kicked in, rushing to her little sister's aid."Ruby!" she called out frantically. Ryan grunted annoyingly under his breath, and he too went rushing in to help his young friend. The Nevermore cried out loudly, and flapped its wings in a single, furious beat. The result of this was hundreds of feathers raining down upon Ruby, Ryan, and Yang. Ruby's cloak got pierced by one of the falling feathers and stopped her in her tracks. The feathers continued showering, blocking the path of Yang and Ryan. "Ruby, get out of there!" Yang called out, obviously panicked.

"I'm trying!" Ruby replied, grunting while she was trying to remove her cloak from the feather.

"Just lose the cloak! Your life means more!" Ryan called out frantically. However, Ruby didn't deter herself from trying to dislodge her cloak. Ryan grunted out in frustration. "Come on!"

The Deathstalker caught up beside Ruby, and looked at her a few seconds. Not wanting to waste any time however, the monster raised its tail, aiming to pierce Ruby with its stinger. It started coming down. Ryan looked on, "Looks like I gotta." He looked at the spot Ruby was at, and looked at the earth all around her. His eyes became a dark brown, his left arm emitting a soft brown glow, barely piercing the sleeve he had on.

He had gone to make his move, but heard a strange sound. A very high pitched sound. That sound came whizzing by his ear, along with the figure of Weiss. _What? How is she moving so fast?_ She had continued on to stop in front of Ruby, slamming her rapier into the ground and creating a sheet of ice in front of Ruby. The Deathstalker's stinger was caught in it.

She turned around at the startled and scared form of Ruby. Scowling, she told Ruby one thing. "You are SO childish."


	7. Speculations of Others

**Hello again. It's me. Thank you to those who actually bother to read the new chapters I post, and thanks to the people who have favorited and followed the story. I'm surprised people would even do that for MY story. So, anyway, I've done some slight changes to the initial story I had already written about, though these changes aren't exactly ann obvious one. Anyways, this is Chapter 7, Speculations of Others**

Weiss wasn't about to let up on her comments, "And dimwitted and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. But, I do suppose... I can be a bit..." Weiss trailed off, "difficult. But, if we're going to do this, we'll have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer." Weiss' tone slowly grew softer towards the end of her talking.

Ruby just looked up at Weiss. "I'm not trying to show off. I just want to show you that I can do this." Ruby sounded like she was trying to prove a point.

Weiss peered down at her young partner, "You're fine." With that, she walked off. Ruby got up, her cloak no longer caught, and beheld what Weiss had done. The Deathstalker had its tail caught in the ice wall that Weiss made. It was standing only a few feet away from Ruby, but she was safe for the moment.

Yang immediately sprinted up to her sister, gripping her ain a tight hug. "I'm so happy that you're okay!" she told Ruby, panic still lingering in her voice.

Ruby smiled. "You know who to thank for that Yang," Ruby told her sister, gazing off in the direction of Weiss, who had just passed Ryan, his arms crossed.

"Are you okay Weiss?" Ryan asked, unmoving. Weiss already passed Ryan, so she was surprised when Ryan asked the question.

She turned around to face him, Ryan did the same. "Yes, I'm fine," she replied sourly, "Why should it matter to you? I have nothing to do with you."

Ryan batted off her attitude and proceeded to answer her question, "Is it so wrong to ask if someone is hurt or anything? Besides, I just thought something may be wrong with you, what with you saving the person you've been mad at since she got here."

Weiss was taken aback at this statement, however she didn't visually show it, she kept up her cool and calm facade. "Of course I have to save her you _dolt_. She is my partner after all, no matter how much of a bumbling idiot she is."

Ryan raised an eyebrow, a smile slowly forming on his face, "Oh, it seems like the cold ice princess has a soft side after all." Ryan was amused when Weiss' face a turned a tinge pink. "I don't think pink is really your colour," Ryan continued, acknowledging her colour change. This only provoked the colour in her face to come out more.

"Everyone has a soft side. You just have to look for it, no matter how difficult it may be to find," Weiss replied quietly, her face giving off the vibe that she was reminiscing on something. She had turned and proceeded to walk away, but something caused her to turn around and look back at Ryan. "You know... I'm not sure if I know your name," Weiss told him in a hushed tone. "Of course you know mine, Weiss Schnee," Weiss extended out her left hand, " and you are?"

_She sounds different when she isn't mad, or cold. Its almost... nice._ Ryan walked up to her an accepted her hand shake. "I'm Ryan Kick. Nice to meet you Weiss," he said softly. That's when he felt the tingle in his left arm. He saw in his peripheral vision that it was very softly glowing white. _WHAT!? White!?_

"Um, are your eyes always white?" Weiss asked, obviously confused. Ryan let go of Weiss' hand.

"My eyes are hazel Weiss," Ryan replied quickly, flagging off signs to Weiss that something was up.

"No, they're definately wh-" Weiss cut herself off when she did see that his eyes were hazel. "Anyway... we need to get going." she replied tersely, her voice sharp and cold again. Ryan nodded in agreement, and they joined the remaining group back at the ruins.

The blonde haried boy was stuttering nervously after he observed that the giant crow was making a circle back. "G-Guys? That things c-circling b-back. What're we going to do?" he finally picked off his stutter towards the end.

"Who was this again?" Ryan very quietly asked Tyler.

"His name's Jaune," he gestured towards the blonde boy, and then to the red haired girl. "And that's Pyrrha. Alexis and I met them on seperate occaisions after you left." Ryan and Tyler turned their attention back to the current conversation being held.

"There's no point in dillydallying. Our objective is right in front of us," Weiss replied, stating the obvious like a pro.

Ruby nodded, agreeing with her partner, "She's right. Our mission is to grab one of the artifacts and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live. I like that idea. It's one I can get behind," Jaune sounded scared. _Odd. Sure, being a bit frightened at the prospect of fighting monsters initially is normal, he seems __**very **__much so._

"Yang, Blake, Tyler, Alexis, Nora, Ren, Serena, and I have all gotten our pieces, You guys get yours," Ryan told the rest calmly. Ruby and Jaune nodded and proceeded to pick up the white knight and white rook.

Everyone's attention shifted when they heard the sound of the angry Deathstalker and ice cracking. "Time we left!" Ren issued immediately.

Ruby nodded. "Right. Let's go." She and Jaune gestured for everyone to follow, thus, they did. All except for Yang, who was staying behind. This prompted Blake and Ryan's curiousity to go off.

"What is it?" Blake asked, wanting to know if something was up.

But Yang had a smile plastered on her face. "It's nothing." With that, she ran to join the group ahead. Ryan and Blake exchanged shrugs and continued right behind her.

_Several minutes later..._

"Why _is_ that thing chasing after us?" Ryan asked irritated.

"Because SOMEONE pissed it off!" Weiss retaliated angrily and gazed up in the direction of Ruby, who was running ahead of her.

_More ruins? How far does this go on?_ Ryan thought to himself. _Welp, there's the cliff._ Everyone had sprinted and ducked behind an assortment of pillars, all lined up. The Nevermore landed further ahead of the group of twelve, landing on the ruins, eerily crying out upon the group.

"Fantastic! Just what we need!" Alexis called out angrily.

"All we need to do is get past the stupid thing! That shouldn't be TOO hard, right?" Tyler asked, his confidence bolstered. And then it dropped when the Deathstalker came crashing through the trees behind them, snapping its claws, obviously furious.

"Aw man, RUN!" Jaune sounded more frightened than a little child watching a horror movie. But, the idea wasn't a bad one. Most of the group decided to so, while some had another idea.

"Nora! Distract him!" Ren called to his friend, who in turn jumped out from behind her hiding place. She got spotted by the Nevermore, and it launched a barrage of its feathers at Nora. But, Nora was able to evade them all.

"Hey Tyler, help her out!" Alexis called out to her partner. Tyler nodded enthusiastically and jumped out as well. The two out in the open nodded. Nora took her grenade launcher off her back and began firing off canisters filled with what appears to be pink dust, rapidly. Tyler ripped his axe off his back and converted it into a chain gun, (No joke, a chain gun.) and started shooting at the giant crow. The crow retreated for the time being, but the Deathstalker crept up behind Nora and Tyler. That's when Ren, Blake, and Serena jumped in, slashing at its face. Then, Weiss came and picked up Nora, producing a dust glyph and jumping away.

Everyone began nearing the small bridge; Pyrrha and Ryan ushered everyone ahead of them. "Go, go!" Pyrrha called out as she pulled her shield and javelin off her back, transforming her javelin into its gun form and firing off a few rounds. Ryan set his sword to Fire and began swinging, being careful to not hit anyone with his strikes.

The Deathstalker reached the bridge and everyone had made it onto it. The good news was that the Deathstalker couldn't cross the bridge because it was too narrow. The bad news was that the Nevermore was flying directly at the bridge, its intent obvious. "Oh, crap!" Ryan was worried for one of the first times that day.

The crow smashed into the bridge, severing the group of twelve. On one side, Blake, Ren, Pyrrha, Tyler, Alexis and Ryan were fighting the Deathstalker. They weren't having much luck at the moment. On the other side was Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Serena, Jaune, and Nora. Ruby began firing at the Nevermore, but not to much use. Jaune looked over at the scene that invovled the Deathstalker.

They may have had the advantage in numbers, but the limited space made it difficult for anyone to do anything of use. Everyone was just firing off gunshots and hoping something happened. Blake jumped into the air and began firing off Gambol Shroud, spinning in a circle, but was immediately knocked down. Ren and Alexis charged in immediatly after. "Man, we need to get over there, they need help!" Jaune shouted aloud.

"Then let's do this!" Nora immediately stood beside Jaune, grenade launcher at the ready, a determined look spread across her face.

"As much as I'd love to... I can't make that jump." Jaune countered frightfully, gazing over the edge of the bridge and gulping nervously. Nora just turned to the young man, a devilish grin and giggle escaping her mouth. She then pushed Jaune behind herself, forcefully, and transformed her grenade launcher into a large warhammer. **(I was surprised when I first saw it, pleasantly so) **With the transformation of her weapon complete, Nora jumped into the air and slammed her weapon down on the end of the bridge closest to the Deathstalker.

"Oh, wait!"Jaune was obviosuly not entirely on board with what Nora had in mind. She fired off a shot, thus causing the opposite edge of bridge to fling upward. This resluted in the launch of Jaune towards the Deathstalker. "Oh, no, no, no, no, NO!" Nora then shot off another shot from her hammer and launched herself as well towards the Deathstalker.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"God, this thing just WON'T go down!" Ryan was obviously becoming frustrated at this entire scenario, his sword stikes just weren't working. Tyler, meanwhile, was just going nuts, shooting his chain gun at the Deathstalker.

"Even with the six of us, it'll be difficult without a plan!" Alexis shouted, informing the rest of the group. This however, distracted Ryan, thus resulting in his left arm being caught by the Deathstalker's claw. The Deathstalker attempted to lift its claw and send Ryan flying, but yielded no results, only serving to create a tear in Ryan's sleeve. "No one." Ryan's voice was full of contempt and malice. The remaining five exchanged worried glances. "Ever." His voice was raising in volume. "Touches."

"Oh, shit. Everyone back up!" Tyler exclaimed wildly. Tyler knew exactly what was about to happen.

"MY! ARM!" Ryan's voice reached a high volume, and a large spark of lightning protruded from his left arm and shocked the beast. It retracted its claw quickly, but proceeded to slash at Ryan with its stinger. Ryan parried the stinger easily. However, the Deathstalker also struck at Ryan with its spare claw, and struck at him with such sheer force that he got sent off the edge of the bridge.

"Ryan!" Alexis and Tyler called anxiously, afraid for the outcome. Ryan, however, snapped out his state of rage and noticed that he was without any solid ground to stand on. _What the heck? I'm falling! Great! What am I supposed to do?!_

**Okay, so maybe the reason's for Ryan's arm are more clear NEXT chapter! Didn't plan for it to happen that way, but life doesn't unravel the way you plan it to half the time. So, hope you enjoyed, reviews and critisicm appreciated! I'm out for now!**


	8. Players Create Teams

**Only now do I realize that this is Chapter 8. My god. Anyway, Ryan's story for arm thingy is explained next chapter. Sorry for the delay on that whole thing. Also, I feel that if I describe absolutely everything that occurs, I'm gonna inflict some finger pain upon myself, and head pain among viewers. So, I'm gonna continue to write in 3rd person, but perdominantly from Ryan's POV. Yeah. Anyway, this is Chapter 8, Players Create Teams.**

"Oh, CRAP!" Ryan was now more afraid than angry, realising that he was falling. With that, he immediately set his sword to Wind and began swiping at the area in which in was falling. "Rrgh! It isn't enough! Guess I gotta..." Ryan wasn't exactly a big fan of what he was about to do, but he had to do it anyway.

Ryan concentrated hard, looking at the wind current flying around him, his eyes becoming green. With this, he raised his left arm up and above his head, keeping his index and middle finger raised, and pointed upward. He could feel the wind current begin to slow his descent, slowing but surely. Eventually, he started to go up, and up, and up, until he finally was in arms reach of the tarnished bridge. Ryan took Supernova out of its brace and slammed it into the bridge's remains, lowering his left arm and panting heavily in the process.

"Made.. *pant* it..." He hoisted himself up onto the solid structure and collapsed onto the ground, spreading out his arms and panting.

Ryan opened his eyes and saw that he was on the opposite side of the bridge that the Deathstalker was at.

"Oh, great... Wait, where's Blake? And how did Nora and Jaune end up over there?" Part of Ryan's question was answered when he heard the loud *clang* of metal on rock, and looked down to observe Blake, flying through the air towards the Nevermore. Ryan shifted his gaze further and saw Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Serena stood atop some broken old building. Despite the small, stabbing pain Ryan felt in his chest, he picked himself up and jumped over to where the four girls were presently standing.

As Ryan landed beside Weiss, he stumbled a small bit with his landing. "Hey, Ryan, you okay?" Weiss looked down upon her... acquaintance. Ryan stiffened his body up and stood tall, nodding his head in indication. Weiss smirked. "Glad you could join us," she told him, a small smile trying to creep its way onto her face.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Ryan replied calmly. Blake then landed beside the talking pair.

"That thing's tougher than it looks!" she announced, informing her companions.

"Then let's hit it with all we've got!" Yang boldy exclaimed.

"'Cause we're all we've got right now," Serena added.

At that last sentence, everyone transormed their weapons, Ruby put her gun into its scythe form, Yang activated her gauntlets, Blake put her Gambol Shroud katana into a gun, and Serena activated the shotgun blasters on her gloves. Weiss and Ryan proceeded to turning their dust wheels and attacking the Nevermore that way.

Ryan set Supernova to Ice and began slashing his sword in the beast's direction, Weiss sending out beams of dust energy towards the Nevermore, everyone else firing off their guns as well. Of course, the stupid Grimm just HAD to keep flying towards them, unyielding in its course.

"Fan-fricken-tastic." Ryan sighed out in annoyance. The Nevermore crashed directly into the building they were all standing on, making everyone fall. "God DAMNIT!" Ryan yelled out, exasperated. he could feel the solid ground escaping from beneath him.

"How about moving instead of complaining?" Serena yelled. Ryan nodded, acknowledging his partner's words and proceeded to getting himself back onto something solid and unnmoving. Ryan gazed around, Blake was running up the nearby pillar. _I don't have the speed for that._ Yang was shooting her gauntlets to increase her own velocity. _Supernova's shots aren't that powerful._ Ryan continued jumping. Weiss was sliding across pieces of rock and using her glyphs to boost her jump. _I don't have glyphs. She looked like she was skating on ice..._ Serena and Ruby had roughly the same tactic in mind as Yang, shooting off shots to increase their velocity.

_Crap, I'm out of debris to jump on!_ Ryan had come to one simple conclusion. "No choice in the matter." A determined look splayed across Ryan's face. He raised his left hand, his middle and index finger pointed upward. His eyes turned green, and his arm emitted a soft, vibrant green glow which escaped through the tear in his sleeve, courtesy of the Deathstalker.

The five girls looked at him with looks of shock and awe. This boy was literally floating in the air, a green glow being emitted from his body. Now, he was slowly being carried upwards by some unseen force and came to rest beside the group of five, panting and gasping for air, hunched over.

"How in the heck did you-" Weiss began, obviously confused by what she had just witnissed.

Ryan, however, cut her off, "I'll explain it... *huff* later... Please tell me *puff* someone has a *pant* plan." _Should my chest hurt this much?_

Everyone looked around at each other, seeing if anyone had an idea, excluding Ryan of course. Ruby had scrunched her eyebrows together, seeming to be thinking hard on something. Yang immediately picked up on this and prompted the question. "Got an idea Ruby?"

Ruby nodded and gathered everyone around her for a huddle. "Okay guys, here's what we're gonna do. Yang and Serena can get its attention. Yang, I'll leave the stunning it and making it crash part up to you." Yang pumped her fist into the air excitedly at this statement.

"All right! Let's go Serena!" Yang joyfully grabbed Serena by the collar and hoisted her up and over to the pillars, aiming to catch its attention.

Ruby watched them go, but continued with her plan, "Weiss, once the grimm crashes, it'll be up to you to freeze it in place. Seeing how Ryan looks really tired and all." Ryan shot Ruby a sharp glare, but he quickly backed off and picked himself up. Weiss nodded, understanding her job, and jumping off.

Ruby turned to Blake. "Blake, is your ribbon stretchy?" Blake nodded to answer. "Good, you see those two pillars there," Ruby pointed them out, "can you span the ribbon across those two pillars?" Blake nodded again, and she jumped off as well.

"So, I'm not needed I'm assuming." Ryan asked sharply, crossing his arms and looking onward.

Ruby turned to face him, "Uh, well... when you put it that way... um..." Ruby was flustering to get an answer out for him.

"Don't worry Ruby. I'll just be backup in case something goes awry. Plans usually never unravel the way you plan them to." Ryan finished that last sentence on a dark note in his voice. Ruby and Ryan wrenched their attention to the scene unfolding in front of them. Yang was standing IN the beak of the flying Nevermore, shooting off rounds into its open mouth like no tomorrow.

"That's a little unorthodox." Ryan stated, mildly surprised by Yang's bold maneuver. At that note, Yanged hopped out of its beak, and landed firmly upon the bridge below. The Nevermore continued travelling foward, appearing to be stunned by Yang's shots, and violently crashed directly into the cliff face. Shortly after, it turned and landed on a small outcropping, screeching angrily. Yang looked up and saw Weiss fast approaching towards the Nevermore, along with Ruby and Blake standing at the two columns directly behind Weiss. Yang got up and ran off towards the pair, leaving Weiss to do her job.

In hindsight, it seemed simple enough, but there was one detail no one else caught but Ryan. He had caught the bird's sudden twitch in its wings and immediately knew what was about to happen. "Weiss, watch out!" Ryan did his best to warn his friend in time, but she didn't hear him.

The Nevermore screeched and flapped its wings, shooting out numerous amounts of feathers. Weiss was still tearing along, but that didn't mean that she could dodge the incoming assault. As she gazed up she saw the feather shower cruising along, straight towards her. She jumped in an effort to evade the barrage, but instead got one feather caught in her jacket, and it yanked her forcefully backwards, landing on the bridge with a sickening thump. With that, Weiss was out like a light, her grip on her rapier completely severed.

Everyone gasped at what they had seen, some cringing, some with their hands held over their mouths. Ryan grunted in frustration.

"What do we do now?" Yang asked frightfully. Ryan turned to Serena and she nodded.

"We go with the plan." Serena replied flatly.

"And how do you supp-" Ruby attempted to interject, but instead observed Ryan rushing past her.

As he ran full force, he pulled out Supernova and fired a shot behind. With this added momentum, Ryan shifted the dust wheel to Ice and held Supernova's tip just above the surface of the bridge in front of himself. This created a sheet of ice on the surface of the bridge, and Ryan landed on it with his right foot down, skating along it. As he passed Weiss, he looked at her unconsious form.

_You'll make it._ He looked up and saw the Nevermore, screeching angrily. Ryan jumped up and swung his sword into the outcropping where it had landed, freezing it in place. Ryan glared at the creature before firing off another shot and skating along on his ice path again. On the way, he pulled the feather out of Weiss' jacket and carried her along with him.

At the same time, Blake fired off a shot from Gambol Shroud across to Yang on the opposite pillar, who took the weapon and buried its blade into the pillar. Blake pulled her end of the ribbon and held it taut. Ruby glanced nervously towards Ryan, who held the limp body of Weiss. Ryan got behind the ribbon and laid Weiss down against the pillar.

"Just go with it Ruby!" Serena shouted to her young friend. Ruby nodded, and shot off a round from Crescent Rose, jumping and landing on the stretchy ribbon. Ryan took Supernova and set it Earth before smashing it into the ground and creating two stone pillars that stopped the ribbon from launching its load towards its target.

Ryan then lifted his left hand again, his eyes turning green, and a bright green glow radiated from his arm.

"Your arm... and eyes..." Ruby was dumbfounded at what she saw.

"Focus Ruby." Ruby snapped her attention back to the task at hand. "Eyes on the target. Slow even breaths. And remember," Ryan paused and glanced to his friend. Ruby faltered a bit when she felt the wind blowing around her body. "The wind's always on your side." Ruby cocked the bolt back on her scythe and reloaded an new, ready shot into the barrel.

Ryan took notice of Ruby's preperation and nodded. "Have a nice trip Rose." With that, he took Supernova out the ground, crumbling the two earthen pillars holding the ribbon back, and releasing the gigantic wind current he held back, propelling Ruby towards her target, the Nevermore.

Ruby was aimed for the Nevermore's throat, shotting off shots from Crescent Rose to keep momentum, and she hit spot on. But as she landed on the cliff face, she felt doubt creeping into her thoughts. _The plan would've went well if Weiss was still up, but what can Ryan do? _Ruby thought to herself. The answer was spoken to her a very short time ago.

_The wind's always on your side._ Ruby snapped out her daze when she heard Ryan's voice in her head. Taken by a new determination, she ran forward, up the cliff face, firing off shots to keep up her momentum. she could feel the wind pushing up on her body, encouraging her. It was a glorious feeling.

_It's still so difficult to hold this...! _Ryan had both his hands outstretched, strain and agony riddling his facial features. His arm's radiant green gleam caught the attention of Serena and Blake, while Yang was watching her little sister, dumbfounded at what she was actually doing. A dazed and groggy Weiss had half-awoken because of the glow's brightness, and she was definately surprised at what Ryan was accomplishing.

Finally, Ruby reached the top of the cliff and sliced of the Nevermore's head, the limp body falling back down the cliff. Ryan was panting heavily and sweating up a storm. His arms fell loosely to his sides, his chest heaving up and down from his need for air. He stood there, gasping for the air that felt like it didn't come. Ryan could see his vision slowly go black, the terrible stabbing pain in his chest and right shoulder augmented largely.

As his vision went near black he felt his limbs go numb, greeting Ryan with a rush of wind. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was gonna fall flat on his face again. But, Ryan felt an arm supporting him on his chest, stopping him from falling over. He gazed to his left and saw a white dress. Looking further upward he saw a worry riddled face. "Are you okay?" came the worried voice of Weiss. _Why does she sound so far away?_

Ryan chuckled slightly under his breath. "You look cuter when you aren't so worried. And no, I'm... unh." Ryan passed out in Weiss' arms, the world of black, soundlessness, emptiness greeting him.

**All shall be answered in the next chapter, I promise! I just get carried away practically all the time! Well, maybe not All, but I'm sure you get the picture. So, please be kind to leave criticism or a review, much appreciated! Not to be ungrateful or rude, or anything, but variety of more than one person would be nice. Just sayin'. I'm out for now! Happy reading!**


	9. Forming Up Like Family

**Hello! I'ma back! School, not so nice. Work, mild. Video game releases, killer. Haha, anyway, this is the ninth chapter in my story! And, hopefully, I should be getting into just RWBY characters for stories in the future. I'm just enjoying writing this at the moment. Oh, and let me know if I should, or shouldn't include a George Lucas style plot-twist later in the plot of this story. Your guys' call. This is Chapter 9, Forming Up Like Family.**

"Guh..." Nothing more than pain. Chest pain. Shoulder pain. Mental pain. And blurriness of eyesight. That's also a problem. Opening his eyes, Ryan notices immediately, there's a roof over his head. Ryan stares up the ceiling in confusion for a few moments before hearing an oddly famliar voice.

"Good. You're awake." Ryan glanced downward to the foot of the bed he was in and saw Professor Ozpin, sitting in a chair, sipping out of his mug and looking at Ryan expectantly. "We've talked about the over use of your ability before. How dangerous its backlash can be."

Ryan stared blankly at Ozpin for a few seconds. His brain finally clicked and he gave an answer, "If you were in my same position, with the lives of others at stake, you would do the exact same thing. And I won't make that kind of mistake again."

This time Ozpin shakes his a head, a sorrow filled sigh escaping his lips, "Ryan, I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet," hanging his head slightly. Ozpin then perked up, "Beside that point, the team formation ceremony is about to begin and you have many friends worried for your well being. I advise that you go see them and alleviate their tension."

At this staement, Ryan nods slightly, and gets out the bed, slowly and painfully. "Rgh...! It hasn't hurt this much before..." Ryan mutters under his breath. He also then shivers. "Why is it so cold in-" he attmepted to ask, rubbing his arms for warmth, but quickly realised the answer. "Where's my sweater at?"

Ozpin raises an eyebrow and chuckles slightly, "You aren't getting your sweater back today." Ryan opens a mouth to interject, but Ozpin raises a hand. "I want to see how your friends will react to... that." He said, pointing at Ryan's left arm. Ryan lifted it up and stared at it, always memerised by it.

It had no real pattern. It was strewn across his arm like veins, all in a light purple color. it spanned the distance from his shoulder to his wrist, twisting and turning about on his arm. Ryan snapped out of his trance.

"You and I both know that this little experiment of yours could have mixed results." Ryan replies, eyes narrowed slightly, arms hanging aloof at his sides.

"I am fully aware of that Ryan. But nothing progresses unless you take risks. I am risking your friends understanding on your explanation. Simple as that." Opzin ended the last sentence with a mischievous glint in his eye, but delivered the rest of his mini-speech with a stern, to the point, voice. But, Ryan saw Ozpin visually ease up. "Now, if you'll excuse me," said plainly, "I have annoucnements to make to the up and coming students. I suggest you don't take too long."

Ryan stood there, letting Ozpin's words sink in, when he hears a very sharp voice, "Is Ryan okay?" Ryan turned to face the doorway, and heard a second, more familiar voice.

"Why don't you go and see for yourself?" came the voice of Ozpin. And immediately after the last word in Ozpin's sentence was finished, in came Weiss, of all people. However, she came in so fast that she didn't notice Ryan standing three feet away from the doorway. After promptly colliding into him, and making him fall over she exclaims, "Oh great! I need to watch where I'm going."

"...Rgh..." was the only sound that came from Ryan, who had somehow twisted himself and fell on his face.

Weiss looked up and noticed the fallen form of Ryan, "Ah! Are you okay?" quickly scrambling up and over to him.

"Not gonna lie... I've been worse. But not much." Ryan replied, slowly picking himself up off the floor. _When am I gonna get a break?_ He turned to face Weiss, along with the rest of the group, Serena, Alexis, Tyler, Ruby, Yang, and Blake. Yang was grinning ear to ear, trying to stifle a laugh. "Well the sight of you two means you got that Deathstalker," Ryan said, gesturing to Tyler and Alexis.

"Yeah! It was so cool! You should've seen Nora and Jaune jump over the bridge gap, and how Pyrrha launched Nora into the air and how-" Alexis was going on and on, but something caught her eye. "SHINY!" Alexis immediately bolted to beside the bed Ryan was in and looked at Supernova, leaning against it and gleaming in the moonlight filtering in through the window.

Tyler just crossed his arms. "I'll get her," she said as he moved over to Alexis.

Ryan just shook his head and sighed. "Acts just like a little kid, and has the attention span equivalent to one."

Weiss jumps in, "Tell me about it, I've got Ruby." To prove her point she gestured towards Ruby with her thumb. Ruby was busy being dragged away by Yang, arms flailing wildly in the air, and a muffled scream emitting from under Yang's hand, which covered Ruby's mouth.

Serena turned to Ryan. "She can... talk a little bit too much."

"I know the feeling." Ryan replied dryly.

"Why's your arm all... purple?" came the sudden voice of Blake. Ryan turned to face her, a small cringe on his face signalling, **Not comfortable with it.** After the question was asked, Tyler returned with the reeled-in Alexis, and Yang came back in with Ruby, to much convenience.

"You're kinda voicing everyone's thoughts based on your faces." Ryan looked around to all his friends and sighed. "This purple mark on my arm is... something. It was never atcually on my arm as a kid, it only appeared after the death of my mother. When that happened everything... changed. But, that doesn't answer your question. To answer your question, this mark allows me to manipulate the elemental qualities of dust," after saying that last sentence, Ryan's mark glowed red, his eyes following color suit, and a small ball of flame came out of his outstrectched hand.

Everyone jumped back in surprise, excluding Tyler and Alexis. "Tyler and Alexis already know about this. But, this isn't all I can do." His arm and eyes changed through the different colors, from yellow, to green, to brown, to purple, to blue, and to ice blue.

When Ryan hit blue, he took his right hand and a pool of water layed stationary in it. Then, he took his left hand, and made the water into the shape of a very unique snowflake, before he went ice blue and froze it. Ryan took it and spun it on his finger. "My... powers," he spat out that word in disgust, "are very unique. For instance, this snowflake will never melt. It also explains the incredibility of my 'levitation' at the ruins. I was manipulating wind currents. But, all that doesn't come without a price. Overuse usually ends with me slumping over and fainting from exhaustion. But, if I go too far, it attacks my heart." Most of the girls gasped at the last statement. "And it did at the ruins, I could feel it." Ryan added, placing his hand over his chest.

"That's... so... cool!" came the exclaim of Ruby, jumping at Ryan and wrapping her arms around him in an overbearing hug. She then looked up at him with a glint of worry in her eye, "Are you okay?"

Ryan couldn't help but smile at the younger girl. "For now... I'm great. I've got great friends to help me cope, don't I?" Everyone nodded at this statement, even Blake. Well, everyone but Weiss, who was standing back with her arms crossed.

"Awweh! Group hug time!' came the excitable voice of Yang, and everyone obliged to her idea.

"Why not." Blake said monotonously, rolling her eyes.

"I'm always up for one of those!" Ruby cheered, giddy at the prospect.

"They don't happen enough." Serena stated, a small smile forming on her face.

Everyone grouped up, excluding Weiss, and jumbled together into a big mess of friendship. "Aw, come on Princess, don't spoil the mood!" Yang teased. Weiss just put her hands on her hips and let out her breath in a huff.

"I refuse to take part in your childish activities." she said curtly, promptly crossing her arms again and slightly turning away from the group. This, of course, was a buzzkill for the current mood, but Ryan had a different idea.

"Oh, don't like partaking in the childish stuff, huh? Well then maybe this'll be better..." Ryan replied slyly and moved over to Weiss and wrapped her into a gentle hug. This made Weiss's face blossom into another small blush.

"Uh... um..." Weiss stammered for a moment before she broke free of Ryan's grasp. Which wasn't that difficult, since he didn't put any effort into keeping her close.

"Once again," Ryan said, looking Weiss in the eyes, "I still don't think pink is your color."Ryan could snickering from behind him. "Oh, yeah? What would happen if maybe..." Ryan's left hand immediately shot up, a soft, ice blue glow emitting from his arm, "You couldn't move!" At those words, an ice pillar shot up out of the ground and enveloped Yang, who Ryan had assumed was snickering, up to her shoulders.

"Ah! Hey!" Yang was not pleased at this sudden move. Or sudden _not _move. Ba-dum, tss. But, the intercom abruptly quickly came on, stopping the current party.

"Would all remaining students make their way to the main stage for team formation. NOW." That last part wasn't exactly the most welcoming word.

"Ah, crap!" Ryan exclaimed, everyone flying out of the immediate vicinity. Except for Yang of course.

"Hey! A little help here?!" Yang called out nervously. Ryan returned back into the doorway and lowered both his hands, sending the pillar of ice back into the earth. "If you know what's good for you, you'll never do that to me again!" Yang growled angrily, grasping Ryan by the collar of his shirt.

"We've got more important things to worry about Yang!" Ryan replied, the tiniest bit of stress showing. With that in mind, Yang plopped him back on the ground, and the pair dashed their way towards the main stage.

_Several minutes later..._

"Serena Orthos, Tyler Peerk, Alexis Shoarfall, and Ryan Kick. The four of you retreived the black queen pieces. From this day forth you will work together as... Team STAR. Led by... Serena Orthos." Ozpin called out to the group of four standing before him.

Serena had look of surprise upon her face, her jaw going slightly slack. Ryan turned to Serena and clapped for her, Tyler and Alexis joining in as well. Afterwards, they departed off of the stage.

Jaune and company then went up on the stage next. "Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth you will be known as... Team JNPR (Juniper). Led by... Jaune Arc!"

Jaune looked to Ozpin nervously and held his hand to his chest, "L-led by...?" At that, Pyrrha punched him in the shoulder, her way of congratulating him. Unfortunately, Jaune went flying from this punch and ended up landing on his rear end. Everyone laughed a little, while Pyrrha smiled sheepishly, and team JNPR left the stage. Next up were Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang.

"And finally, Blake Belledonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forth you will be known as... Team RWBY (Ruby). Led by... Ruby Rose." Ozpin said, a hint of some emotion in his last sentence.

Everyone in the group turned to face the surprised girl, who was simply at a loss for words. Yang jumped at Ruby, putting her in a hug and happily exclaiming, "I'm so proud of you!"

All of Team STAR and JNPR were clapping, Ryan put two fingers to his mouth and gave off a high pitched whistle, clapping enthusiastically for the young leader.

"It looks like thing are shaping up to be an... interesting year," Ozpin said, bearly loud enough for Ryan to catch onto. _ I wonder what you got in store for us..._

_Several minutes later..._

"Whaddya mean we don't get dorm rooms until tomorrow?" Ruby whined. She was changed into her bedtime attire.

"That's just it Ruby, we don't. It's THAT simple." Tyler replied, changed into his dark blue pajama bottoms.

"But whyyyyyyy?" Ruby continued whining, crossing her arms and giving a pouty face.

"Oh, just calm down. One more night in the ballroom ain't gonna kill ya." Ryan called back to his young friend. "And if I can hear you over the sound of my music, something's wrong!"

Ryan added loudly. Ryan liked to listen to music. Its one of the few things that calmed him down and focused his mind. Needless to say, focus of the mind isn't a good thing when you're preparing to go to bed.

"I think we're missing something," Alexis said seriously, which snapped Ryan out of his music daze. He sat up and looked at his friend. She had changed into a humorous, fluffy onesie, colored orange and brown.

"What could we possibly be missing?" Ryan replied nonchalantly, waving it off.

"What's white and stings like cold ice?" Blake answered his question with her own question, spoken from behind her book.

"What, Weiss? There's no w-" Ryan cut himself off. "Damnit. Where'd she go?" Ryan turned to everybody, seeing if someone could give an answer. It certainly wasn't gonna be Alexis, who's seriousness blew over faster than the wind moved, who was playing with Serena's bedtime ponytail.

"I think I saw her headed up for the roof." Ruby replied with a lazy yawn afterward.

"I'll go up and get her." Ryan told everyone. But, no one replied. "Oh, don't everyone be worried at once." Everyone just waved him off silently. Ryan grunted slightly under his breath. He grabbed his shirt, put it on, and proceeded to climb the stairs to meet the white girl. If she was actually up there.

After climbing several flights of stairs, Ryan arrived at the top, a thin layer of sweat forming on his brow. He opened the door leading outside slowly and found Weiss standing out on top of the roof. He was about to call to her when she began doing something that Ryan didn't expect.

She began singing.

**Holy writing Batman! Just saying, if you're expecting great Yang puns, it probably won't happen, unless I actually think of them. The not moving one was just dumb luck on my part. Anyway, I really enjoy writing these, and I hope you enjoy reading them! I'm out for now!**


	10. The Chant of STAR

_And so it begins... But, the journey through life is an arduous one, met with many challenges and difficulties along the way. The trick is being able to overcome these challenges._

Green, like fresh grass fills my life and sees me through my present strains.

Blue is warm and always willing, fighting through the wind and rain.

Orange looks for solace in games.

Purple's past still holds true.

Green comes with no qualms from her past, but is met with many burdens, challenges, and stresses in the present.

Blue finds disapproval from people of old, their past decisions wishing to remain constant. Blue's rebellion starts with a single refusal.

Orange becomes shunned, her outer shell cracking and giving way to her inner self, pronouncing itself and making it known to all.

Purple recieves difficulty in coping with his past, now that he's in the present. However, his solace is found, all with the help of a single, delicate snowflake.


	11. Heart Strings

**WARNING! This chapter involves a Weiss that is not in the show of RWBY currently. It is by my theory that Weiss acts so cold to others as a way of hiding her feelings, since it might be easier for her to do so than to let her emotions come forth. Viewer discretion is advised. Lol. This is Chapter 10, Heart Strings.**

Those words, those notes, were the most heartbreaking thing Ryan had ever heard.

"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all."

Every word sounded more delicate and sorrow filled than the last.

"Mirror, locked inside of me, tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"

It sounded like she was cracking on some of the words, like heart and stone. It sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see. I can keep it from the world, why won't you.." some sniffling, " let me hide from me?"

He shoulders were shuddering, her knees buckling. At the end of her last line, Weiss slumped over onto her knees, shuddering and letting out sobs of... what? It could be a mixture of things. Sadness? Agony? ...Yearning? While Ryan pondered over his thoughts for the white girl, she had picked herself up and had ceased her crying. She had rubbed out any creases she might've made in her skirt and turned around. Unfortunately, Ryan still had the door open, watching Weiss's entire performance.

Weiss's eyes were moist, lines of wetness running down her cheeks making it evident that she was definately crying earlier. Weiss looked up and noticed Ryan standing in the doorway. Her eyes flitted upward a little, laying her gaze upon Ryan, a small twitch occurring at the corner of her mouth. "How long have you been standing there?" Weiss asked calmly, not a single note of hostility entering her voice.

"Uhm..." Ryan paused for a solid five seconds, determining whether or not to tell her the truth. In the end, he sighed, thinking it would be better just to cave in anyway. "I've been here since just before you started singing. You've got a nice voice by the way. What is it? Talent? Practice? Born with it? " Ryan was attempting to stray Weiss's thoughts away from whatever was causing her previous distress, and walked out towards her.

"I was born with a naturally good voice. Of course, that didn't sway my father from drilling me consistently to get it to near perfect," Weiss replied, her head slowly bowing itself, a note of sadness entering at the mention of her father.

Ryan's gaze became one of concern. Weiss was lingering on something, and it was the cause for her current state. Hearing that heartbreaking voice, her yearn for something, it absolutely broke Ryan's heart. Of course, he would try and relieve pain from any of his friends given the chance, but it was Weiss. He felt more than compelled to do something for the girl. So, he did the only thing he felt he could do. He walked up to her and hugged her.

Weiss made no move to resist. If anything, she accepted it, embraced it. And she let the waterworks flow, the downhearted sobbing pouring out. Ryan held her close, letting her cry freely into his shirt, not having a single qualm about it. He slowly ran his fingers through her hair. He liked the smooth, soft texture Weiss's hair contained, it was obvious she kept it maintained well. That's when Ryan noticed the white glow coming from his arm again. It was very soft, but when Weiss was beginning to settle down, her depression passing over, it grew in intensity.

Weiss looked up from Ryan's shirt, looking him in the eyes. "White?" Weiss asked, her bottom lip quivering a little bit still. Obviously, his eyes had changed color in accordance to the reaction on his arm.

Ryan didn't exactly know how to respond to Weiss's question, especially since he didn't know what it meant for his arm to be white. It wasn't a dust type he even had. "I'm as lost on that question as you are," he replied slowly, still grasping Weiss.

"It doesn't matter," Weiss replied, hugging Ryan slightly tighter. "Thank you," she whispered quietly, resting her head sideways on his chest. They stayed in that position for a few minutes, letting time pass.

"You good now Weiss?" Ryan asked carefully, making sure not to have another scene later. She nodded in accordance, letting him know that she was okay. "You want to go back down with the rest?" Ryan asked, indifferent on her reply.

Weiss paused for a bit, waiting to give an answer. "Not... quite yet... I just want to stay like this... Just for a little bit longer..." she told him, her voice sounding as though she was content, at peace, and, of all things, maybe even happy. Ryan couldn't but smile at the reply.

"Okay, we'll go when you say so Weiss." Ryan told his content friend. She nodded. Ryan wasn't at all against Weiss's decision. After all, Ryan had a friend, a pretty girl in particular, warming up to him, not wanting to break the embrace anytime soon. A win in his books any day.

But, his arm was the one thing that prodded his mind. Why white? However, the worry blew over as fast as it presented itself. Ryan's thoughts instead strayed to the girl embraced with him right now.

As he looked down at her, he felt his gaze linger upon the scar across her left eye, which he had never noticed until now. All the rest of her appearance seemed to be flawless. The white skirt and jacket flowing and complimenting her beautiful white hair. But, the scar seemed to be the sticking point for fresh eyes, the one thing that threw off her entire appearance. Ryan didn't think that of the scar. He thought of it as a reminder for a hard fought and won battle. It gave her a vibe that said, "I got rid of what did this to me. You think you'll accomplish more?"

Then, Ryan turned his thoughts to her personality. Sure, she was very hostile and cold towards others, but that was her way of disconnection. She seemed impersonal, not wanting to really reveal any personal feelings to others. Thinking this over, Ryan felt obliged that Weiss had shown that side of herself to him, rather than hiding behind the sheet of ice that she used to blow everyone else off.

Then, out of nowhere, Weiss spoke up, "Ryan, I think I'm good to go back now." Weiss let her arms go slack, slowly pulling them away from Ryan. Ryan mirrored Weiss's actions and took a step back.

"Are you sure?" Ryan asked carefully, making sure that she was fully content before heading back down. Weiss nodded, and even flashed him the smallest of smiles, convincing him fully on her decision. "Alright then," Ryan walked up to the closed roof door, and opened it, "Ladies first." Ryan smiled at Weiss, hoping to keep a good impression. Weiss looked up at Ryan, her face soft and content.

"Thank you," she told him softly, before heading through the opening and proceeding to descend the flights of stairs. Ryan followed suti and shut the door behind him, revelling the fact that Weiss was being nice around him.

_Several minutes later..._

"Where on Remnant did everybody go?!" Weiss shouted crossly. Ryan had fallen a bit further behind Weiss, and as he reached the bottom of the stairs he realised- she was right. No one was left in the ballroom.

"You know, they might've informed the students that their dorms were actually ready tonight," Ryan offered in assistance to Weiss. She only sighed in reply to Ryan's statement.

"Always one step behind..." Weiss muttered to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Well, at least I know where my team's dorm room is, so we should head that way. I can't delay my beauty sleep any longer." Weiss starts walking off, Ryan in close tow.

"If sleep is what keeps you beautiful, you certainly must get a lot of it," Ryan mumbled VERY quietly to himself. Unfortunately, Weiss had supersonic hearing and picked up on Ryan had said. However, she kept on walking, a furious blush storming over her face, and not saying a word back at Ryan.

_Several minutes later..._

"Come on Ruby, open the door!" Ryan called to his friend behind the pane of wood, still being constant in her refusal to allow Weiss entry.

"Hey, its not _my _fault the princess left and forgot to get a key!" Ruby retalliated quickly. It was obvious that she wasn't going to be swayed easily. Ryan sighed in exasperation. "Can you at least tell us where Serena, Tyler, and Alexis went? Cause if you aren't gonna let Weiss in, she'll just have to crash with us for the night!" Weiss's eyes widened at this idea. Ryan certainly wasn't thinking 100%, he was speaking out of impulse more than anything.

Then, the door blew open, slamming into Ryan's face and sending him reeling backward. As Ryan stumbled and fell on his rear end, he grasped his face. "My face ain't gonna remain handsome at this rate!" he exclaimed angrily. Weiss did her best to suppress a giggle, but it still came through, nonetheless.

Ruby stood in the doorway, her mischievous silver orbs peering at Ryan's fallen form. "Sorry Ryan, but..." Ruby paused for a slight second, grabbing hold of Weiss's wrist. Ryan peeked behind Ruby, seeing Blake on her bed reading a book, unsurprisingly, and Yang already, somehow, asleep, despite all the racket the trio was creating.

"Weiss is MY partner!" At that note, Ruby yanked Weiss viciously into their dorm room, slamming the door shut behind her. After a solid minute ahd passed, Ryan quickly clued into the fact that he STILL didn't know where his team was.

"At least tell me where my friends are..." Ryan called out into the door, banging on it a few times futilely. Ryan had bowed his head in exasperation before the door opened a crack and Ryan saw a glowing amber eye. "Blake...?" Ryan asked quietly. She nodded in assent.

"Your friends are in the room the next door down, room 16." Blake told Ryan in a hushed tone.

"Thanks Blake, you're a life saver. Sorry for pulling you away from your book. I hope I didn't ruin a good part or anything," Ryan smiled at her, his friendliness easily conveyed.

Blake chuckled slightly, "No, you're fine. I'd rather be sure that you made it to your friends rather than read that old book."

Ryan's face lights up even more, "Well, thanks Blake. Good night, see you tomorrow. Tell the other three I said good night too." Ryan walks off towards his team's door, waving to a blushing Blake, unbeknowest to him of course.

Ryan raps firmly on the door, and a worried looking Serena comes to answer it. "Where have you BEEN?!" Serena asks firmly and worriedly, him arms crossed and her foot tapping.

Ryan sighed, "I was up with Weiss, we came down, didn't find you guys, came here, had a run in with Ruby and some odd reason for not letting Weiss in, then I came here."

Serena still wasn't persuaded. "What could've possibly taken so long up there that you could've missed us?" she asked her steely gaze drilling into Ryan's eyes.

Ryan quickly got annoyed, his eyes flashing purple, "Look, does it matter that much?! I'm tired and I just wanna go to bed!" Ryan blew off as much steam as he could in those two sentences, but the result was less than desirable.

Serena visably flinched back, her eyes welling up with tears, her bottom lip quivering slightly. _Ah crap, it happened again. _"Serena I'm sorry," Ryan grabbed a hold of her softly, wrapping his arms around her. He told her soothingly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, shh, shh, shh... I should've warned you, some of my emotions are more amplified because of my mark. And if they get too out of hand, they take over." Serena was sniffling, but not a single tear dropped. Alexis and Tyler looked up from the card game they were having and saw the scene before them.

"Another meltdown Ryan?" Tyler asked concerndedly. Ryan nodded in response, his eyes filling with regret. Tyler got up and picked Serena up and back onto her feet. She was still reeling from the sudden explosion of anger. Ryan picked himself up as well. Serena stumbled over to her bed and sat down, gazing up at Ryan cautiously.

Ryan looked at her, "My emotions tie in with dust types. Stubborn for brown, anger for purple, abrasive for red, happy for yellow, nonchalant with green, cold and hostile with ice blue. And when my eyes are hazel, it usually means I'm stable enough." Ryan gazed down at the floor after finishing his explanation. The air was tense, silence filling the room.

And then Alexis jumped onto the same bed Serena was on. And, let's just say she didn't only jump a foot into the air. No, it was almost as high as the ceiling. "Come on guys, let's lighten up! This silence is driving me crazy!" Alexis squealed joyfully.

Tyler's face lit up, "As if you aren't already crazy..."

Alexis snapped and faced him, her face pouty and irked at the comment. "Pointing out the obvious always was your style." she retaliated quickly, picking up one of the pillows and throwing it at Tyler's face, nailing him right on target.

"Oh yeah?" Tyler challenged Alexis, picking up the pillow and making a move to hit her with it. Serena jumped off the bed and out of the way of the two hooligans, who came crashing together and exploded into a storm of feathers. Ryan couldn't help but smile looking the two go at it. Unfortunately, he didn't find himself looking for long. After a couple seconds, a huge wave of tiredness washed over Ryan, making his eyelids heavy and his legs weak.

"Ah, crap. There's thgat sleep deprivation catchin' up on me," Ryan tiredly mumbled, falling foward onto the ground of the dorm room and blacking out. The last thing he thought of was white and black.

**Man, I am SOOOO far behind. I just don't have the time sometimes. But, I enjoy doing these, its fun! Hope you guys enjoy readin' 'em! Catcha later, I'm out for now!**


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